I think the possibility of custom maps for the next Halo was brought up on here, but I doubt Bungie ever really entertained the idea. I'm not fully sure how copyright law applies to mods, but they would probably have to obtain permission from the mapper to use a custom map. Most of us are nothing but screen names, and pretty much all of us have moved on. Tracking down the likes of Mothergoat or DocOc would be a nightmare, but they could come out of the woodworks with a lawsuit if Bungie used their IP without permission.

I don't think they could have done it themselves, either. HaloMaps is the only central repository left, and it's so ridiculously out of date it's not funny anymore. Plus, if you go by top downloads, or top rated or whatever else, you are still going to get an 80/20 split between gimmicks and legitimately solid gameplay.

There were some legitimately good (vanilla, balanced, reasonably sized) maps in the olden days. It just makes me plain sad that most will probably never be played again.