A few observations on my part regarding Daz3D/Daz Studio and the (likely) future of some Holiday Island girls...
First, it is important to note that (if I understand correctly)
DarkHound began this
little project (with a production team of one, just Darkhound) about 6 years ago or so (or probably longer ago, if we consider initial development of the assets that comprised the first version of Holiday Island that was released into production). This is essentially ages ago in terms of computer tech. Think about the technological changes that have happened over the past 6-7 plus years.
Of course, Daz3D/Daz Studio (DS) is no exception. Genesis (G1) characters are ancient history and aren't really supported by the latest versions of DS. Genesis 2/V4 characters have only very limited support in current DS; Genesis 3 characters have more support and are still viable (but for how much longer?); Genesis 8 is the current character "mature" version, though Daz attempted to transition it to Genesis 8.1 (with only limited success), and is now in the process of replacing it with Genesis 9. The point of this little history discussion is that I believe (and please correct me if I am wrong) some of the early Holiday Island girls were originally created as G2F or V4 characters (though they may have since been converted to G3F) and later additions, I believe, were created in G3F (I don't know if the most recent additions -Daniela, Sara, and Mia- were created in G3F or G8F). Consequently, it is increasingly difficult or maybe impossible to create new content for some of the older girls, given the specifics and nuances of their original design.
This brings me to the topic of certain Holiday Island girls. It is my understanding that when Darkhound, and
DuckSwim, and certain other OG posters here talk about an HI girl being "retired", they don't mean that she is going to be deleted from the game; what they seem to mean is that active development of new content or image upgrades for her is coming to an end. Players starting a new game would have all of a "retired" HI girl's existing content still available; there just wouldn't be any new content developed.
I apologize for dumping this text wall on everyone; it just seemed to me that there was some misunderstanding about what an HI girl being "retired" meant, and about why an HI girl might need to be "retired". Hopefully this was more clarifying than confusing.