With all due respect is it really any different from a redeco vehicle (Imp ARC, TRU Tie Interceptor) or a resculpt like an AT-AT?
Sure. The AT-AT is a completely new toy, remade from the ground up with modern toy technology. In this case, it's taking the 2008 Darth Vader and giving him a flat surface to lay on. It's 2009 Luke, with a new stick. Granted, it's a nice stick. This is more like the 2006 AT-AT, which took the 1990s AT-AT (which itself was a modified 1980 AT-AT) and tossed in an exclusive figure which, really, was just a regular figure with a new head. "Just Different Enough to Make You Mad
TM."
The new TIE Interceptor was properly recolored, included a new (at the time) super-articulated pilot, and had a resculpted interior. The Imperial ARC 170-- which was a weak item, I won't argue there-- at least gave a new paint job to an existing toy. But that might be the best illustration of my point, the price really wasn't good for what you got.
And remember, if Hasbro doesn't make this item, the fans can get a pretty close replica. It isn't THAT hard to manufacture an unlicensed item, and a pile of sticks with electronics and flame sound effects is something you can make without a license. It's not even kinda close, a funeral pyre isn't Star Wars specific. Transformers fans can (and do) do this sort of thing, so there's no reason that we as a group can't if we really, really wanted one for our collections. If you're a MIB collector, well, that's a different beast but a similar product can be made by a third party if the market wants it if Hasbro ever says, once and for all, "we're not going to make this." If/when Hasbro decides they can make money on this, I'm sure we'll see it.
MOTU Classics is absolutely not the way I'd want this line to go... they're wonderful figures and I buy 'em too, but one day sale windows to buy a figure, and then you gotta wait months for a reissue-- should one happen? That's awful. And not in Hasbro's business model, yet at least. In the 1990s there was a stink about Hasbro selling figures directly through StarWars.Hasbro.com with its first internet exclusive, and that seems to have basically (and unfortunately) stuck.