But is there no intention for the .com version to return to active?
I think it might just be a more dynamic thing (that they'll review it whenever it seems useful to or if there are better protections for the domain - like anti ddos).
There have been a few mixers that have gone down this route though of only offering tor access (and chipmixer will probably know themselves which was lost used and I can imagine the onion version being used for higher amounts).