Localization Conundrum

My client received a request from Korea for a localized version 6.5. There are two issues:

1. It's going to cost a lot, because the last version localized into Ko was version 5.01.
2. English is up to version 8, and the process of creating the help is much better than in 6.5 . Should we include those enhancements to 6.5 Ko, even though they would take it out of parity with 6.5 En?

I experimented to see whether the improvements mattered to the localization process in general and the cost in particular. I re-created portions of version 5.01 help using version 5.01 Perl scripts, then did portions of that same help using version 6.5 Perl scripts. Then I handed both sets off for wordcount analysis. They were within 2-3% of each other, so the cost-savings in translation are not there.

However, I suspected that the vendor would charge me a lot more for engineering on the 5.01 help, because the version 6.5 scripts are much cleaner, and they handle the raw text much better. This compelled me to examine the matter further.

Better help or not, the problem is one of product management. Even if 6.5 help is "better," it differs too much from 5.01 help. I imagine a Korean customer struggling to bounce back and forth between 5.01 En and Ko, and puzzling at the discrepancies, even though the Ko version had a lot more information than the En version.

They are the sort of discrepancies that make cowards of us all (albeit well advised cowards). I've decided to hand off the pure 5.01 En help system for this project, warts and all.