I’m also not very happy with the behavior of my media players (Kodi).
It would be fine to have a good support for the original release date in Kodi (e.g. also use the original release date in the artists discography). Unfortunately it doesn’t support it.
Sometimes I add the original release in MusicBrainz (if not exists) and tag my newer release with the original release. Even for some re-releases of old Vinyl-LP’s as CD I select the old LP as my release when tagging.
Sometimes I set the date manually in Picard.
And sometimes I just live with the new release date.
P.S.: Sorry for exhume this old thread but since it’s still a issue …
P.S.2: I’ve also started a plugin for Picard to keep personal values also on updating data from the MB-servers, but it’s currently on hold.