It’s possible that the designers may have intentionally left the door open for such a variation. I may be reading too much into this, but note that the game is called “A&A WWI: 1914”, not simply “A&A WWI”. On one level, you could say that the “1914” part is redundant unless it’s a potential way of distinguishing the game from hypothetical versions set in 1915, 1916, or 1917…and even possibly 1918, though I think that one’s too much of a stretch.
On the other hand, leaving the door open does not in itself prove that the designers have any actual plans to make use of it. So who knows.