I agree that the mail on the original metals is much nicer...I only have about 9 of those and wish it was a few times that.
I'm just using them in my Command Company since those are the last models to die and really get much of the attention visually.
That being said, making the new mail at that scale isn't going to be as difficult, I think, as it will be making a smooth surface to do it on. With the relatively small area and all the other details around that you don't want to damage, it may not be worth it from a prep-work perspective alone. Maybe do one and see how long it takes. If this was SBG I'd be more encouraging for you to dive into the project as you may be dealing with only a couple boxes of models, but for a WotR army this could go up by several times the number. Though laying down the GS, pinning out the mail pattern, adding some trim then doing some light sanding when it's dry may only be 5 minutes or so per model, that's going to add about 2.5 - 3 hours of work to a basic 4-company Formation. If you work something out with a power tool that lets you clean that scale armor down smooth in a couple minutes per model then that's not too bad, but if you have to do it by hand and are looking at another 5-10 minutes each you may never see the end (yeah, like any of us are ever going to see the end of painting our collection as is).
I have done some mail armor work at various scales with GS and, though it's still not great, I'm getting better with each attempt and I think the change can look very nice. Really make the model stand out from the crowd if it's a whole new armor. Your change is more subtle but still a valid attempt. At least give it a whirl and see how long it takes and what it looks like at the end.