As ScrumpyMike demonstrates, customer demand seems to be a big factor.
Composite materials were used by Ned Steinberger in his range of new age guitar designs as far back as the late seventies. Many manufacturers use them now. They are still somehow not the real deal in the eyes of a lot of people who were there in the 60s, 70s or 80s. Oddly, people who weren't born back then are voicing similar sentiment today.
In parallel, I was getting an introduction to composite materials in aircraft technology in my day job. Aerospace, the automotive and the sports industries all use composite materials routinely now. In music, significant numbers of players seem to want to avoid newer materials. The green issues surrounding the harvesting of exotic woods and ivory are good reason to think twice about what your instrument is really made of... or so you'd think.
Since I started taking notice of music tech in the seventies the industry has embraced new technology whole-heartedly. I was on one of the last analogue sound mixing courses that were being run in Dublin. We touched on MIDI despite that, such was the enthusiasm of the instructors to whet our appetites for the future. The new syllabus was a rewrite that put digital tech at the core or everything.
I was the mug who had paid for the old fashioned analogue course the day before the new syllabus was announced. Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets because it was good knowledge. Indeed, I was amongst the last to be formally educated in analogue sound and lighting for live and recorded performance. I have a feeling of privilege for that.
The oddness is in the way that traditional instruments are sought despite clear advantages in choosing modern instruments that incorporate new materials and ideas. The current demand for newer instruments to look old shows a willingness to pay lip service to antiquity by defacing relicing brand new kit.
Inexplicable. The antique market benefits as ever. Collectors take over from musicians. They'll pay extra for genuine and original hardware. That is a good reason for Mike to keep his original spec switch. It is also good reason for you to make the headstock modification reversible. That you take care to uphold that ideal is admirable.