I agree that these functions should be back in, it’s just not realistic for me to work on it until at least after the new year.
An interim solution would be to clone the PR branch where I restore the functions (as it sounds like you did), but then rebase it onto main. Then you’ll essentially be at the most recent version with these functions “restored”. I don’t think the rebase will break anything (since these functions live off to the side and aren’t implicated in any changes), but these are famous last words.