Agreed it's a sales gimmick, but I can see one side of it as a collector.
WAAAYYYY down the line, there could be an interest in the time Lionel tried this experiment to make a few items in the USA again. It starts with the Presidential cars (the secoond time around) and includes a few holiday cars for that year before the company that made them went out of business.
What would be the total number of different cars that would "complete" a collection of these? Off the top of my head, I know the Presidents, the Charlie Brown cars (less the boxcar in the set), and several other cars (maybe 5 not previously mentioned?) from this year's Christmas catalog.
I'm guessing it's less than 15 cars to have a "complete" set of these cars. (not that I'm trying for this, at least not now)
-Dave
