I can see that, but to me the integral compression lock was one of the defining features of the model. When it became clear that the ATR 2 dropped the integral lock and was going to be another $$$ Seki model in black g10 and s30v, I figured it was doomed.
Had they been able to simply do a ti/g10 sprint of the original model, I think people would have been tripping over themselves to buy it, like with the Lum Tanto sprint.