SHort answer is no, you have it in your own quote
" but this decision was made so we could relaunch with new races and a lot of new equipment."

That means if they wanted to add a butt slider they would also need to redo all the equipment to keep that in mind. It's not as easy as saying just make butts, it's a Jenga effect, you want to add that, you have to go back and accommodate all armor to fit with the slider.