Doesn't Hasbro usually say something to the effect of "we're looking for other methods of selling [cancelled item]"? "Not made to the same standards", while fairly vague, sounds more like they literally
can't sell it (i.e. it failed safety tests), not because it doesn't have their current gimmicks.
Of course, if that's what happened one wonders how they didn't get to fix it.
Sure they've stepped up and sorted out the First Edition mess, but they're not going to sell as many because folks will have already imported, and then Hasbro will say we didn't really want them.
This is probably as fast as Hasbro was able to get FE over here. Selling a toyline to retailers takes months, and convincing them to buy a line they just passed on certainly can't be easy.
Fans, on the other hand, are impossibly impatient, and the internet provides an incredibly fast means of importing toys.