REASON: Adding hitboxes would require new sprite character graphics to represent those hitboxes, and there just simply is not enough space in video memory for that. It would also require juggling with the vanilla object allocation system and/or introducing an unacceptable amount of lag into the game. Most hitboxes are not all that interesting anyway. The only hitboxes that might provide useful to enable are the sword hitboxes, and you can read about those in my Explication or FoxLisk's notes.
No.
REASON: The change to SA-1 included a complete overhaul of the backend code. Adding new features to both versions would require maintaining two completely separate codebases and writing almost every feature twice. I simply cannot allow my ability to improve this project be inhibited by inferior applications or devices that do not properly emulate expansion chips. You may think it's not fair that I'm ignoring your system, but what's actually not fair is holding everyone else back from a better practice hack.