You are correct.
The question is more-or-less centered on "If it goes live, and gets busted, can we make it go SP?"
I'm sure it could be done by someone with significant coding knowledge (though more realistically by a team of someones unless we want it to take years), in the event that we finally crack the server code and get a private server up and running, or if someone buys out the IP/Game and reopens it, making the process of data gathering and server emulation much easier. It would take a significant amount of time and effort though. The entire game would have to be rebalanced for a single player environment. That means that enemy units would need to have their numbers entirely redone, as well as player characters, mob distribution would have to be reworked (Fewer enemies in some groups, smaller gatherings in some places, Boss level enemies would have to spawn with fewer minions/lieutenants, etc. etc.), existing task forces and trials would have to be almost completely redone to make them managable to a single person (Timed sections would have to be redone to make them doable by one person, or have time limits extended, swarms of enemies such as the final mission of the ITF would have to be significantly reduced or spread out further/debuffed, EBs/AVs would need to be rebalanced to be soloable by the average person...), and to truly preserve the spirit of the city, I'm sure most people would want some form of "team builder" that would allow you to recruit AI team mates that would function like the Allies we already had in game to allow for an epic team sweep, and to give us backup (If you're a Super Strength tank, First Ward/Night Ward is a NIGHTMARE for killing enemies, and in some cases surviving them, meaning having an Emp along, or something with Psionic/Energy powers would be very nice), and something of that caliber would take a ridiculous investment of time, effort and coding.
All in all, yes, it would be entirely possible to do, but it would take someone who was a very devoted fan with access to the server code and knowledge of how to unravel it, plus the mathematical mind to rebalance the entire powers system for fair and fun gameplay, and the ability/patience to go through the ENTIRE game, mission by mission, map by map (of which there are over 2000 at last count if I recall) and completely revamp the world. We surely have people with these talents (even if not all in one single person), but getting them all together, them finding time, and the entire team agreeing on the proper process and how things need to be done would most certainly take a very long time. Even if S.C.O.R.E. were to crack the code today, I wouldn't bank on the game being running on a private server anywhere sooner than this time next year simply because they would have to rebuild the the world from the ground up. It would take just as long, and probably longer to do what you're asking. I'd certainly appreciate it, and would play it every day from now to the end of time, but don't count on it seeing a release until quite some time after we see the original game come back, in official form or otherwise.