Announcing that on the next update, when nothing has visibly changed about the ability to acquire them, is saying these items will not be available again.
That doesn't say that at all, if you ask me. But again, with the content being out for multiple updates, it could just be another step in the process. If the items are going to be permanently unavailable then those objectives should be removed/replaced. That they haven't done that yet means either they forgot, they don't care, or they intend to make them doable again.

But like I said... I don't think most people ever farmed chips for this purpose....