For the purposes of transporting land units from one place to another, I don't remember Surfboard ever being a better option than at least one of Djinn or air transports in any scenario.
That leaves the usecase of using Surfboard as a firing platform for land units on sea, which also was never very practical. (And possibly a few janky borderline-bug uses.)
Somebody would have to do a lot of work to make Surfboard compatible with the changes that have happened since its removal, and then to maintain it into the future. Perhaps such a somebody can be found, but it sure isn't going to be me.