The same reason the bulk of X-Men characters are still 20-30 years old, despite the comic books having started up in the 60s, and content in the comics changing to match whats going on in the real world as mankind progressed in science. I mean, thats why the X-men, as well as most comic book characters, aren't geriatric. They basically live in a universe where they're locked in time, but the rest of the world isn't.
Your friend needs to not whine about this particular issue, because retconning to modernize things slightly in the franchise is commonplace(New series runs, for example.) As long as the spirit and story of how Logan became Wolverine remains, it's fine. Though, that doesn't look like it'll happen.
Yeah all origins update with the time. It's how they keep characters in comics from dying of old age.