There seems to be a little understanding problem.
It's literally a different item in a completely different slot in your inventory. One is a Gear, the "new" one a Vanity.
Small technicality, not unlike any other recolor.
So theoretically they are not re-releasing anything. that mean, they are not contradicting anything they said, compared to other situations in which they did.
On the other hand, that gear was useful or not, 10 years ago, as can be any other gear in its respective expansion, let it go and move on.