From the article:

"The current devs (who were not the original developer team from 10+ years ago) thought they had to change what worked perfectly for over a decade and run the game's sprites through 4Kids-style censorship by removing such 'offensive' elements as armbands and panty shots, for the reasons and moral standpoint known only to them," wrote one recent Steam reviewer.

I have no horse in this race - I've never played the game, nor intend to suggest I'm some kind of moral judge capable of deciding whether the changes are good or bad - but assuming that information is correct, this is new Devs that purchased the rights to the game changing the original creators design.