So another update, I emailed Russ after I saw the post with Mark's email.
He said that after my email they actually talked to Nike directly and confirmed that they did not send all laces with all orders because they were in fact limited. So not all pairs will come with all the laces.
So that does lead me to believe they're not losing the laces, they're just not receiving them from sellers. And I'm sure most of these sellers are probably receiving their pairs with the laces missing also.
BUT, that doesn't mean that us as consumers are wrong to expect all the laces. I told Russ that GOAT makes sellers list their pairs as conditional if they're missing laces. I know that's not how their model works, but they have to figure something out about this OW laces situation because it's sprwading in the sneaker world to be wary about buying pairs from them.
Hopefully, they take everyone's concerns into account.