2009 was when the bank redesign competition was held, there was then odd bits added on thereafter by the EMs, and Mesanna again in 2013 on Europa for our meeting area. She claimed that the redesign was done before she joined (or moved into her Producer role more like), which had features she wouldn't allow any more - the gate being one of them.
Impression I got was that this is one step of many in returning the WBB on all shards back to something close to "original."