In my opinion, Heritage Feats should represent different types of races, not characteristics that were already in them, it makes no sense that such huge PHYSICAL features are present in some creatures and not others of the same ancestry. For example, this new feats would represent different types of elves, gnomes, halflings, dwarves and other races that already are known for variations in their history. This is good in two ways:
1- Having all current Heritage feats given back to the stripped down version of races we have right now
2- Not only allow new variations of races to be introduced into the game, but actually make these feats more impactful, because instead them of being stuff we were all used to have and are **common** characteristics of that particular race. Now they can swap and add new characteristics.
With that out of the way, now comes the part of Ancestry feats. They need to be front loaded. Seriously. They should be something your character starts with. They also should be mostly cultural, things that would allow adopted ancestries to be well represented in the game, rather than something you're actively punishing yourself for in the current state. Instead of 1 feat, or 2 like some developers already said they're open to, I think it should be 3 or 4 and with the progression being much more scarce afterwards. This progression should be directly tied to the feats you already have, to represent practice and improvement within the already established ancestry characteristics. For example: Hatred increasing its bonus after the character spent a lot of time adventuring, instead of adding the bonus, it can even branch to new paths,like more hated enemies. There's plenty of opportunities and ideas.
This is not something we can handwave or accept as "it's a game", buying back your ancestry is something that breaks any type of immersion someone would have with the world created and it is big enough in the mechanics of the system that can't be changed without proper thought and care.
I had the same problem. I'll admit I haven't done a thorough reading yet, but I only picked up that Level 1-only Heritage feats existed as a distinct type of Ancestry Feat while reading threads about the Ancestry.
The idea of Heritage feats being a more elaborate thing that essentially defines Subrace instead isn't a bad idea, and in such a case I think they would be made more obvious.
I'll also put my hat in that I don't think that the half-races being done this way is innately bad. In theory, I think it makes a lot of sense, and makes room for more distinct races without necessarily diminishing traditional ones. The problem is that the Ancestry Feat system to begin with is a little lackluster.
I'm definitely in favor of most biological features being Level 1 and the rest being more culturally themed. I say most, because I do think there is some room for, especially on more unusual races, biological features that are trained for a certain use or an adaptation they gain later on.