Add a new feature to assign a Mandatory field template to Released Products. Each template would allow the user to define which fields on the Released product are mandatory so you could assign different templates to different types of products. This would be a step up from the current templates which just copy field values from one record to another. While the fields in the template would not stop the user from saving the Released product record, it may make sense to default the stopped flags on the Default order settings of the item and prevent them from being unchecked until all mandatory fields are specified. It may even make sense to tie this to Product lifecycle states somehow as well.