You'll also notice you lost the bi-colored LEDs in the marker lights too. IMO the" first gen" legacy stuff is the pinnacle of Lionels sound. Nearly every steamer offered had its own unique chuff.
Now I think Lionel has only 1 or 2 chuff styles making most locomotives sound alike aside from whistles.
Recent articulated offerings i.e Challenger and LM bigboy don't even have the correct articulated chuff .
Lionel has a new sound engineer since RT left. This may have something to do with it.