Another way to put it is that we have a high-damage ability, Fleeting Raiju, and a situation gap closer, Forked Raiju, than doesn't involve a damage trade off with Fleeting Raiju.
As a practical matter, they spent resources to create the Fleeting Raiju graphic, etc., and they likely don't have the resources to wholly replace it with something else at the beginning of the expansion. The change that they made seems like a really good one given the likely constraints.
