I can't say that I'm really surprised, actually. The search for SNS was pretty much going nowhere, as anybody hacking into the games would at least
have to find even a small hint towards it. An accessible room or anything.
I'm 100% sure that SNS is completely gone. Think of it this way. BK was getting the items. DK64 and/or BT was swapping it over. Getting the items + Swapping being taken out =
No SNS. Completely and utterly gone.
But like everybody else, I'm really curious of what Rare wanted to do with Blackeye. Even though he won't have anything to do with SNS in the future, I'd like to see his character expanded on, since there's some mystery surrounding him. He'd be a great addition to BK3.