When I was talking with Mark Taylor to get the problem fixed, he didn't mention anything of the sort. Which is not to say that it's not true.

Regardless, if it works in the current version, since LAME is open source, you'll always have access to the current version. And it's not as if LAME has huge bugs left. I can't imagine what else they could add to it other than to improve the psychoacoustics further. By the time that happens significantly and nogap support has fallen by the wayside, Ogg Vorbis should be available for use on the player.