Sounds like another ambitious catalog attempting to provide a little bit for every niche in the hobby. I can wait until the hard copy comes. I doubt Lionel restricts storefront dealers from distributing catalogs. Makes no sense, thus our getting in a high moral dudgeon about the nefarious early reports/releases may be much ado about something Lionel cares absolutely nothing about.
Consider this. Giving storefront dealers the catalogs and letting them do as they wish 2-3 weeks before the on-line versions are available gives their storefront dealers a bit of an advantage compared with on-line only operations that Lionel has always tried to discourage. I doubt it makes much difference these days, as Charles Ro, Trainworld, etc. are both storefront and on-line, so you can always call and ask for a catalog. There are children without enough to eat in our nation, so I save my outrage for bigger issues, personally.
As for dwindling enthusiasm, that is a sad fact of life in general. Were you most excited about trains as a 10 year old on Christmas morning, say, or now in your 70s? As Byron wrote, "we'll go no more aroving, so late into the night..... The sword outwears the sheath, etc." All things that gave us pleasure can become less exciting over time, and we just don't have the passion or energy for "X" as much as we did when we were young and the world was new.
I still enjoy the catalogs decades on, but, unsurprisingly, to me, the intensity and desire to acquire stuff (not to mention space) are diminished. Fun, but not as thrilling as once was. So it's not about Lionel, it may be about me and you. 
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There's a whole forum where disappointed, angry older men in the hobby complain about Lionel having betrayed them by having a few lemons in recent years. What is really going on, at least in part, is clearly the curmudgeonly, self-involved disillusion that accompanies aging, at least in my experience. It's not really Lionel, it's them/us, I believe. If you read the comments of newer hobbyists and younger hobbyists the thrill of the catalog and the new trains is still very much part of their experience. Please don't rain on their parade. Life wears people down without help from the old/experienced. Sermon over 
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