Feel like I'm not likely to pull the trigger on another version of P3 unless it has all of the content included in previous versions. No Kotone, no sale.
Same reason I never picked it up. They certainly sounded like it was never going to happen in interviews, but this was also Atlus' best launch for a title ever, so who knows.
I can't understand why on Earth they would release another incomplete version of the game when this is very clearly the best opportunity to release a definitive version with all content. It comes off as either tone deaf to their audience, or as a crass attempt to milk yet another future release with the P3P Kotone content added.
I believe them when they said it was just not in their budget. This already was their largest Persona in terms of voiced character lines, much less all the other development that would go into the option. Disappointing for sure, but I'm not at all surprised.
I genuinely don't think we're seeing her in a future DLC or re-release.