Thanks everyone for your advice and knowledge. I need to digest what you all have advised.
It is very frustrating to say the least. The appeal to use LionChief remotes and Legacy trains (via your phone/iPad) is appealing and so simple, but I am limited to only buying from Lionel. If I want to run MTH/Atlas/Lionel trains at the same time, I'm out to luck. Lionel is currently having manufacturing delays to boot. I have a Lionel 2234210 Dash 8 on back order for a year.
Altas and MTH have some nice locos. I might just bite the bullet and buy them and run conventional in the interim.
Thanks again.