Shadow & the Opera House

Hello,
First of all I want to say I love BNW. I've played FF6 every 2-4 years since release and BNW is such a great experience that I don't think I'll ever play the regular game again.

On my current playthrough, I finished Zozo and decided to bring Shadow along to the Magitek Research Facility. I always forget he's available for Zozo when choosing my party in Narshe, and wanted to give him a try since he's one of my less used characters. As I now know (and I'm sure you all know), Shadow ducks out during the opera and you're left shorthanded all the way through the Magitek Research Facility. I understand this is just what FF6 does, but it certainly has me tempted to "forget" Shadow when his time comes on the Floating Continent.

Taking Shadow to the opera would normally be a strange path through the game since he leaves after Zozo if you pick him up. But BNW incentivizes you to walk by Kohlingen after Zozo since Crazy Bob is up north with Golem. Especially since I never remember that Shadow is available after Narshe, I felt set up for disappointment by picking up Shadow when I did.

Can anything be done about this hiccup in the game? I assume not. Possible adjustments would be 1) Allow Shadow to remain through the opera, 2) Remove Shadow from Kohlingen after Zozo, 3) Allow the player to fill the empty slot somehow (possibly an NPC in Vector?)

I never really considered the fact that since the player is now greatly encouraged to head back north, they might stop by Kolhingen. More likely, they'll chocobo it up there and back, making the Kolhingen stop less likely. I never asked for Shadow to be removed or anything to be changed since it's unnecessary event work and I rather like the easter egg you get if you take him there.

Understandable. It was certainly memorable--Shadow was my plan for clearing the rats and I ended up getting to Ultros with 0:04 on the clock. I'm mostly shocked to learn something about the game after this many replays.

I do think I'll bring Relm to the Floating Continent so we can teach Shadow a lesson in abandonment.

EDIT: Also I believe he took his equipment and I can't release it using the NPC on the airship. At least he can't hold an esper at that point.