In this case it's a pretty easy decision since anyone running the official client will not be able to mine, and because the network was not producing PoS blocks (after PoW stalled) transactions are also broken. The only thing you can do with the official client is connect to other peers and sync... you cannot mine, send, or receive.

Sounds like the changes are fairly minor so I'm sure if the original dev ever returned he would be happy to incorporate them into an official version.

Go GRW!