The more i think about it it makes sense from a business prospective that the handle and guard have not been changed.
Then why bother with a Test Team at all, if you won't correct the single biggest problem with the knife? The handle design is flawed - even in something like the SoD, the steel protrudes far enough to protect the res-c from being abraded by whatever you're cutting.
I've seen instructions on here on how to remove res-c handles. I'm tempted to do so and add a steel guard to my regulator to protect the handles. Originally I was hoping I wouldn't have to do something like that, and that they would fix the problem in the production version, but the lack of a fix and the change of blade geometry has me back at square one and thinking about how to fix the problem myself.