Do you mean equiping people from this pool was only supposed to work with companions, not regular troops ?
If so, then it's not a big loss, and I'm wrong from the beginning. I thought this worked for every soldier, and would allow something like giving chainmail suits to town levies without upgrading them.
And I checked everywhere in pre10, the option is removed. It's neither in "Camp" menu, nor in "Take an action" or "mod options".