It's not so much lack of interest. It's more lack of belief that there are enough salvageable parts on this particular cue to warrant a "rebuild".
If he replaces every part of this cue except the ring with his and Jay's name on it, is it a rebuild or is it a brand new cue?
Also, Ernie is a cue builder, when he does a fix on an old cue, it's to make a pool cue out of. Ernie is no dummy, he knows that plenty of the old stuff he restores will never hit a ball, but he's a perfectionist and a cue maker and his restorations have to have the ability of having Gina playablility. I think he doesn't see this cue as being viable in that way.
Sorry if you don't see it that way, but I think you should be a little careful about attaching motivations and thoughts to a guy you clearly don't know. There are plenty of people reading these forums that have had Ernie give precedence over existing projects in order to fix or restore an old Gina, with special time allocated for to playing cues.
Last time I was in there he had stopped work on my project in order to do a repair on a Gina shaft. He apologized to me, explaining that he couldn't make a guy be out his playing cue for 3 months or more. Plenty of cue makers do.
Thanks
Kevin