I agree with what you are saying Daveb. The one glaring problem that I see is that Lionel released the new scale Challenger and announced the scale Y3a without scale wheels.
So what is one to do? I am in this quandary right now myself. I would prefer scale track and I wouldn't have a problem with the new diesels because I can get scale wheels. What if I want the new scale steam? (I do!) That means I can't use scale track. I could use Fastrack. I have 2 cases of it and while it is nice, it isn't as nice as I would like. I am lucky in a way as I haven't built my layout yet. I would be a bit frustrated if I already had a scale code 100 layout. I actually have a small code 100 switching layout, but I dont count that.
In my opinion, now that I have thought about it I feel that adding a scale wheel option for steam engines is much more important, priority wise, than DCC.
Think about it like this... A whole segment of S is not buying the new high end steam just because they physically won't run on scale track. Those folks aren't going to replace their track with Fastrack so unless scale wheels are offered they will never buy. Priority 1 should be scale wheels. Why? S Scalers could buy and swap the electronics. At least they would run on their track. After that adding a common socket with DCC support would be icing on the cake. Remember, you are talking about a group that has no problems dropping $2k+ on a brass steamer. $800 for a Y3a with scale wheels that just needs an electronic swap probably isn't a big deal.
I just feel that if Lionel is going to really do these scale offering right, then both diesels and steamers need to be on equal footing so at the very least one can have a common rail to run everything on. I don't see a lot of sense offering scale wheels only for diesels.