He did say Ayane too and it was obviously on the capitalizing on the fandom craze of Honoka and Marie Rose(If it was Helena...)
But anyway, I'm still at a real loss on how hard is it really for them to make the skins of the female characters? I mean you couldn't say the exact same thing for the male characters that was made for the skins? Do they all have different moves overall than William does? Because if they don't, then making an overall female base models for the females in general shouldn't be that difficult. If they do, then I can see that being a little more difficult to do.
It shouldn't be difficult at all for them, or at least on the obvious of things. All they have to do is change the running animation, voice sounds, and maybe change some of the wonky elements and gestures to make it more fitting for the women, can't really say dunno. Like the sitting down stance shouldn't be with legs open crossed, it can be more ladylike in a lean posture.
Course, that's just my thought or imagination of things. Sometimes people do grow tired playing a dude.