Ah, you are right about this. We are currently implementing a better “flexible” system for those cases. Please see this branch instead: https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/tree/flex_vehicleprofile
Where you can specify the avoid factor either per request in the json/yml or on import: https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/blob/flex_vehicleprofile/web/src/test/resources/com/graphhopper/http/resources/fire_truck.yml#L20
We’ll probably merge this or a similar version of it in the near future.
Update: there is a more recent flex_vehicleprofile2 branch