With regard to the OP specifically - why Kara-Tur in particular? I mean, it hasn't had a meaningful presence in D&D lore since what, the Horde metaplot in FR, and the dragonships in the original Spelljammer? So 30 years minimum? A quick google doesn't exactly reveal a thriving fan community. It's the next thing to invisible, in fact. Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, and Dark Sun leave it for dead in that department. I can't even remember anyone having lore arguments about the place on this board, whereas we can go on for hundred and hundred of posts about pretty much any other setting. So far as the wider D&D culture, it seems to have pretty much vanished without leaving a trace on the zeitgeist. Quick, everyone, without googling, name 6 Kara-Tur deities! I could do that with the greatest of ease for almost any other D&D setting, even the ones that went out of print before i got into the game in the mid-late 90s. In fact, Kara-Tur seems to be the rarest of rare beasties - an AD&D campaign setting that DOESN'T have a vocal fanbase clamouring for WotC to bring it back! Even Maztica gets more love, and near-universal opinion is that Maztica sucked.
Assuming WotC wanted to put out a product with a more Asian-inspired look and feel, why would they go back to Kara-Tur, and have to deal with or retcon all the hamfisted or problematic stuff rather than make something new? What in particular makes Kara-Tur unique, memorable, and worth salvaging?