I want to say that Itoi is not directly working for Nintendo, but he's still on close terms with them (he conducted the SMB 25th anniversary Iwata asks interview) and still has an in with Iwata himself, being that he was previously associated with APE under HAL's supervision way back when.
Though clearly Nintendo has little concern for the Mother franchise. If they had cared much about growing it, they would have moved Mother 3 to the DS, even superficially (keep graphics the same, throw in a token touch-screen menu like in Pokemon), as it would have made much more sense than releasing a first-party GBA game in 2006. Equally, they've done nothing to promote the franchise on Virtual Console, even in Japan, so this is something that goes deeper than mere localization skittishness
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
