Well, yes and no.
Roddenberry was writing to Hunter, and anyone who's ever written that kind of business letter knows that you never admit you cannot do the job without the person you are trying to persuade, because that gives them extra negotiating muscle and power.
IMHO, I think it's more yes than no. Ignoring Roddenberry's memo, and looking only at the film records, there was enough extra material to put together a longer cut. It likely would not have been a great longer cut, but it would have been "acceptable."
BTW, don't forget that there were at least two versions of the pilot that were initially assembled -- one long version and one short. FWIW, I strongly suspect that the home video version is the short one.
I don't think there was a reason for Roddenberry to continue. At about the same time (on March 26, 1965), NBC ordered the second pilot and Roddenberry needed to change focus.Fact is, they did settle on terms with Hunter but nothing ever came of the idea.
^^^My thoughts as well. I also seem to recall an earlier scripted scene where Pike kicks a crewman off the Enterprise for murdering a peaceful alien, simply because it appeared ugly to his prejudiced eyes, or something of that nature.
Sir Rhosis
Yes. If Roddenberry reverted to his earlier script draft, the opening scene would have showed Pike (April) introducing, exchanging and greeting crew as the Enterprise docked with the Antares shuttle. And one of exchanged crewman was being shipped off because he opened fire on a friendly, insect-like alien that didn't look intelligent. April was pretty dismayed at that.