There appears to the be the same bug in the game now that also creeped into PES 2016 before.
Before the update, there was a licensed Izet Hajrovic (FA) and a fake Hajrovic (Bosnia NT). I base-copied the real Hajrovic onto his fake version and swapped both to have the real one in the Bosnia NT. I also transferred Hajrovic to my personally edited Werder Bremen team.
Now, after the update, I re-imported Bremen and Hajrovic is back, but he cannot be swapped for his fake Bosnia alter ego anymore, nor can he be nominated for the Bosnia NT at all.
I then swapped Bremen's real Hajrovic with the base-copied fake version to have the national team Hajrovic in my Bremen squad, and as soon as the players were swapped, the originally real Hajrovic disappeared from the game's database entirely.
I suspect this behavior is the same for all real players/FAs that were removed by the update. So re-importing does indeed bring back players that were removed, but they are no longer able to be drafted into a national team. As mentioned, that also happened in PES 2016 after one of the first Data Packs; I noticed it with Chicharito back then, for example.
Just wanted to mention that for the editors out there =)
Before the update, there was a licensed Izet Hajrovic (FA) and a fake Hajrovic (Bosnia NT). I base-copied the real Hajrovic onto his fake version and swapped both to have the real one in the Bosnia NT. I also transferred Hajrovic to my personally edited Werder Bremen team.
Now, after the update, I re-imported Bremen and Hajrovic is back, but he cannot be swapped for his fake Bosnia alter ego anymore, nor can he be nominated for the Bosnia NT at all.
I then swapped Bremen's real Hajrovic with the base-copied fake version to have the national team Hajrovic in my Bremen squad, and as soon as the players were swapped, the originally real Hajrovic disappeared from the game's database entirely.
I suspect this behavior is the same for all real players/FAs that were removed by the update. So re-importing does indeed bring back players that were removed, but they are no longer able to be drafted into a national team. As mentioned, that also happened in PES 2016 after one of the first Data Packs; I noticed it with Chicharito back then, for example.
Just wanted to mention that for the editors out there =)