I'm fine with the new Lionel ABS ES44's. I own two die-cast ES44's... and while they're impressive, they're also not worth the dollars most sellers are asking today. No way. For me it's a law of diminishing returns in terms of how much detail one can have if it correlates to insanely high prices. Nowadays, buyers can buy 3 (or 4) ABS models and have some change to spare vs. purchasing a Vision Line die-cast ES44 (at market pricing).
I posted a photo here on the forum of the new BNSF ES44 paired with the die-cast version I purchase a few years ago. Aside from the minor paint-scheme difference... if you didn't know the road-numbers, you couldn't tell the two models apart in the photo.
Having said that though, it's funny to see how closely the $649 MSRP of the latest ABS models has come to the original $899 MSRP of the die-cast models of 2010/2011. Had time stood still... For the "extra $250 difference", that's money well spent for the die-cast models. Unfortunately, time hasn't stood still... and a seller recently listed the Lionel BNSF #6436 (reportedly produced in lower quantity than #6431) for $1800 on eBay. And I've seen sellers list the Vision Line GE Hybrid for upwards of $2,400 at times. These are absolutely insane price-points for what the buyer is getting. But as long as buyers believe they can still turn around and sell an item for profit, the price escalator continues... until one day the bottom drops out hard.
David