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But I don't know anything about what banks do or don't allow after 1 year from other events, like product conversions. Most people don't try a second product conversion within the first year after they've done a first product conversion. The 1 year from opening the card is a famous situation, because enough people try to do product conversions in the first year after opening (because they know in advance they won't want to keep it a second year when the annual fee shows up). But while people are more likely to want to product convert again within a year after an involuntary product conversion (like the card moving from one bank to another) than within one year after voluntary product conversions, involuntary product conversions are so rare, it might be hard to find datapoints (beyond the current situation) of people trying to product convert such an involuntarily product converted card the first year after the involuntary product conversion, in recent years (since that law went into effect).

This simplest way to figure that out would be for someone who got converted from Citi to ask to convert to the Ascend with no bonus. If that's possible, then that's not the reason for no bonus upgrade being offered online. But if even that is not possible, that would seem to prove that Amex is not allowing upgrades at the early point for such recently bank-converted cards.