"Rumors" about Crowe are a bit hard to trust. He falls into a category with Fate, Jill, and the Halloween Tree concepts that were officially released by Universal as "unused concepts." I don't think Universal would condone the release of those ideas if they had any plans to use them. They may get adapted (Luck was a bastardized Fate and Jill became Chance), but using Crowe after officially saying "We didn't use Crowe," is silly.
Cindy and Eddie (and Chance) are different because they were formally integrated into the event without any "announcement" that they were unused. Eddie, obviously, was an announced icon. Cindy's story became entwined with the Caretaker in 2003 (Revisited had an actual shrine for her in the graveyard).
And all of that ignores the impact of Marketing now. Backstories are not a focus, one. Two, I imagine the department would rather create or adapt their own stuff and not be beholden to A&D.