That's why I said LC/LC+ is a "solution looking for a problem to solve".
I don't think so. I think out-of-the-box accessibility and comfort is a big problem with trains and kids. Kids today are so clever with interfaces, yet they are intimidated by things that seem so easy to us who are a little older. I have seen it in my young cousins: they were scared of moving the ZW handle, yet they took to the TMCC remote like ducks to water. If you want kids to have any chance of taking to trains, you make it easy for them, and you save some bucks on the transformer, too. Win/win.
LC+ solves another problem: it offers the conventional operator a traditional-sized train with higher quality sound and finer speed control than you can get from conventional DC motors without electronics. This fills a niche: Most conventional operators in 3-rail O are going to be interested in traditional-sized equipment--yet all the trains with the better innards lately have been scale offerings. Yes, there are thousands of traditional-sized, conventional engines out there--good for me, but bad for Lionel! If Lionel wants my conventional dollar, they need to give me something not already available, and LC+ does that. It finds my comfort zone while still offering an upgrade path for those who liked their LC starter sets. I see a few LC+ engines in my future, for sure.
I wish all the starter sets were LC+ though. The market has changed such that many engines and rolling stock which are now in starter sets look good next to higher-end items of decades past. It would be nice to be able to use those engines on conventional layouts, too. I bet some would.
Really, the only bad side I see for the LC starter set is that dad or grandpa could not pull out his old train to run on junior's tracks. Given how much the industry, and Lionel most of all, relies on nostalgia and cross-generation brand loyalty, I would not want to lose that possibility. But then, if dad or grandpa has an old train, he probably has the transformer, too. But I wonder if he thinks to use it as a power supply for the LC set?
