The one think I really liked about the old board was it's simple and clean look. Not a hundred other things going on besides the posts. This board already has more going on and I really did not want to add other things like picture files and especially avatars.
Maybe it is just me, but avatars bug the living heck out of me. Most are fine to see the first few times you see them, but man after the 100th time of seeing them every time someone posts gets really old, at least in my opinion. Plus, it only adds another level of moderation that needs to be done to keep the site family friendly.
So I doubt that they will ever be part of the threads. However, you can have them in your profile for folks to see if they check that out.
Hope you understand.
-John