At risk of getting involved in other people’s argument - I’m pretty sure the ‘transported by unknown means to the exiled lands’ was a joke about the game intro (‘prisoner, transported by unknown means’ etc).
My understanding of the bartender issue (not claiming knowledge, just what more knowledgeable people have said - and at least one has shown a fix based on this info) - some minor coding error meant that all new barkeepers (post patch) were a slightly different table entry to the pre patch ones, with the result that the game just couldn’t find the old ones because the change in code meant the game is looking in the wrong place.
Whether or not your suggestion also applies, I have no idea, but I think that was what Thurgond was referencing.
Edit: Found a post that gives better detail of what I’m trying to say - see here