the region lock has nothing to do with it. in CF there were items that were "region locked" and the only "region lock" was that the items weren't translated from Japanese to English when traded, and appeared in Japanese when seen in the English game, which is why I originally put "because they realized people with the japanese version would trade them to English players, and it would be easier for them to find them if they translated them to english, instead of keeping them in Japanese" in one of my posts. They wouldn't make it so you were physically unable to drop the item, because the items were already programmed into the games data - so it would be either they got translated into english, or stayed in Japanese, and I can only assume they got translated into English for convenience.
The DLC was still "region locked" in a way, because it was exclusive to Japan. If they actually had a release of the items outside of Japan then I'd totally get what you're trying to say, but they didn't, and the only thing you're using to justify yourself is that they have English translations, and as I've mentioned before, English translations can be because they did it for convenience because they knew players would trade, or that they were originally going to use the 7-11 DLC, but then 7-11 backed out last minute, or like you said, 7-11 isn't that popular outside of Japan so they decided not to officially release them, but they still would have had to pay endorsement rights for the items in the game, so why would they pay the rights to the items, only to never give them an official release, 2 years after the games western release? It doesn't make sense. The fact that they have English translations means obsoletely nothing, which is what I don't think you understand - because at the end of the day, they still never saw the light of day in English games outside of trading; and translations aside, there is literally no reason why they wouldn't have given them an official English release if Nintendo NA/EU/UK/AU/NZ/w.e actually had the rights to distribute the items in each country.
I think you're missing what I'm trying to say, which is why you seem to think this is an argument, and that i'm making up "scenarios that don't make sense" - because they do (i even got a like from an admin!!!!!!!111)
And if that doesn't make sense, take a look right on over at Splatoons Splatfest's. The English Splatfest's have had themes of cats/dogs, waterslides/rollercoasters, eating/sleeping, and pop/rock, where the Japaese ones have had bread/rice, Red Kitsune/Green Tanuki (which was actually sponsored by their company, Maruchun), and Kirin lemon tea/Kirin milk tea - two of those being drastically different from the English Splatfest's, and both being very obvious displays of product placement/advertisement. I know this doesn't involve the translation issue present in New Leaf, but since Nintendo Japan actually collaborated with two companies for their Splatfest, then why aren't those in the English games? Because they're like 5389249823 more interesting than what English players have seen so far. And the reason for that is probably because even though they're all run by Nintendo, each company/regional branch is different and unique in their own way - which is why the 7-11 set released perfectly fine in Japan with no issues, and probably why it never saw an official release outside of Japan - because even though 7-11 in Japan said it was fine to have in the game, 7-11 America/whatever countries probably had an issue with it, or something - because if they wanted to collab effectively, they could have easily had Maruchun and Kirin bring their noodles and iced tea internationally to expand their business, and used Splatoon as advertisement, but they didn't - and if the two Japanese companies weren't interested in doing that, then there's literally no reason why NoA and/or NoE can't do the same and jump on board and have companies products be used in their Splatfest's, if marketing outside of Japan wasn't an issue.
I know AC and Splatoon are two different games, but they're both Nintendo IP's, they are both developed by the Animal Crossing team, and in both cases, the Japanese version had blatant produce placement endorsements, where the English versions did not.
So considering that out of all three regions Splatfests, both NA and PAL have had 3 boring ones, where Japan has had 1 boring one, and 2 blatantly obvious produce placements, so it can easily be assumed the 7-11's non-release outside of Japan had something to do with marketing issues that the other regions didn't want done, or something similar, because like I said, if everything went smoothly, and 7-11 was more than happy to have their items in the games outside of Japan, there would be no reason for them not to have an official English release, because otherwise it's literally a waste of money. Obviously I don't know what the issue was, since I don't work at Nintendo (but there very clearly was an issue, becuase like I've said, if there wasn't then it would be a waste of money for them to not give an official English release), but from an outsiders perspective, it's pretty obvious it has issues to do with marketing and product placement outside of Japan.
I know this is a pretty crappy example to compare two different, but hopefully it explains what I've been trying to say a little more, that just because it's A-OK in Japan, or in the Japanese version for one thing, doesn't mean it's smooth sailing for every single regions version.
It's the exact same with Gamefreak and Pokemon. They're pretty picky where their products appear, and Pokemon, Mario and Zelda are arguably Nintendo's three biggest franchises - but here's the thing, Pokemon is always missing from games that aren't Pokemon. Mario has multiple references in Zelda games (which can be read here: http://zeldawiki.org/Cameos_in_The_Legend_of_Zelda), and Zelda as multiple references in Mario (which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cFoweFrSlI), but there are no Pokemon cameos present in either games, despite it being one of Nintendo's biggest franchises (and that's because Pokemon is also owned by Gamefreak, but that's a tangent for another day). This can also be further justified by the fact that the Pokemon amiibo are the only ones that don't have any skins in Yoshi's Wooly World, and instead give you a Yoshi with an amiibo shirt, and not a Pokemon themes Yoshi. This is the same for Mario Kart, where the Pokemon amiibo have no compatibility, either. Pokemon is also of Nintendo's biggest, and longest lasting IP's which has no items in Animal Crossing (Animal Crossing has Donkey Kong, Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, Star Fox, F-Zero Yoshi and Wii Fit items, but no Pokemon ones).
There are probably others, but the only one I can think of right now where Pokemon has had the biggest involvement in non-Pokemon related things, would be in the Smash Bros. series. Since Pokemon is missing for the majority of Nintendo's IP's, but present in Smash, obviously Gamefreak granted Nintendo permission to use Pokemon in their game - so why haven't they given them permission to use them in other games? It's the same as the 7-11 set in a way, just because they grant permission for one thing, doesn't mean they grant permission for other. Again, in Brawl, there is data for Mewtwo and something called "Pra_Mai" (speculated to be a tag team of Plusle and Minun), which didn't make it into the final cut of the game. GameFreak/Pokemon had obviously given them permission to use Mewtwo again (and possibly Plusle and Minun is that is what the data was for), but they didn't end up using them, probably because of time constraints. But the same with the 7-11 items having English translations, even though they didn't get used they had data in the game, just like Mewtwo and Plusle/Minun did. Now I get what you're thinking, but the thing is GameFreak/Pokemon is officially partnered with Nintendo, so the fact they wouldn't have needed to pay endorsements like 7-11 would have, because they aren't partnered. Just because there is something to show their data is within the games content doesn't mean anything. So the reason for the 7-11 stuff being cut was probably because of marketing issues outside of Japan.
Whilst on the topic of Smash, it's the same as why Snake is playable in Brawl, but missing in Smash 4. If Nintendo were allowed to use him in Brawl, why was he missing in Smash 4? Because things change over time, and each company is different - and even though Brawl and Smash 4 are two different games, the Japanese and English versions of New Leaf are two different projects.
I'm not mad, or arguing, or anything, I'm simply trying to explain points as to why the 7-11 set didn't get released in English games, because there was most likely a marketing issue which prevented it getting an official release. I'd honestly love to see the 7-11 set be in HHD, because HHD looks great, and I'd love some actual proper convenience store items, but considering the 7-11 items never got released in the English games, and the only way to get them was through trading, and there is very limited trading in HHD, it's entirely possible that they wont see a release in the English games, which I really hope isn't the case, and I'm not saying it defs will be the case, but considering past events, it's certainly a possibility. But anyway, my main point of this post was to show that each company varies by region, etc, and then I got lost and rambled on about 5983259843 different things oops.
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