I've read that there were a number of railroads that had at least some streamlined passenger cars less than 85', among them Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, and B&O. I think many (and probably most by a significant margin) operators out there have layouts too small for 21" cars; the 18" versions would be welcome. Just because people don't have a huge layout doesn't mean they wouldn't like to run highly detailed trains. Lionel will probably eventually make more 18" cars, but they will be in plastic, so it seems there would be a good market for aluminum versions.
"Scale length" arguments are lost on those who simply don't have the room. You have to get real; you can only run what you can run.
