You have to consider that they can't publicly say that they accept the fact that many mods are based on ripped models.
Any future project they will make will probably still allow that kind of mods to be made. A 3d model, ripped or scratch made can be exactly the same if you know how to map, edit the topo, edit the normals and so on.
If someone knows what he's doing there is no difference and so no way for them to control every single mod published.
They are game developers, of course they can't support such thing publicly but Modding is one of the main factors of this game still selling copies and I'm sure they know that.