Yeah, I think despite the fact that many to most of us would rather see realistic style figures, I can understand why we're getting animated versions. They could actually be pretty popular. I mean, we're seeing a theatrical movie, as well as an animated (weekly) series that could last for awhile. Many to most of the "popular" toons these days last 5 years, and the fact that it is Star Wars can probably assure that Cartoon Network will air anything Lucas will give them. I could be wrong, but I think the line makes pretty good sense. And really, aside from the fact that they're not realistic, they don't look like too bad of action figures (aside from the Yoda with the action feature built in).
Plus, like it has been said, we either have a lot of these characters in realistic style already - or will eventually. We've got another round of "realistic" Clone War figures coming this fall, and I'm sure we'll see things like an Ahsoka and newly done Grievous in the "realistic" line eventually as well. I think we're covered pretty well in the fact that the vehicles are done realistic style as well, which is a smart move by Hasbro. Anyways, I agree, I wouldn't have minded seeing it all realistic as well - but I don't think the animated line is as horrible as many are making it out to be. If the whole line (Legacy and all) switched to animated style, then yeah, it would be a much bigger problem. There are other animated lines out there that seem to do ok, or at least have been on the pegs for awhile (The Batman, JLU, Ben 10, etc.) and they don't have the built in appeal necessarily that Star Wars has. Hopefully we'll continue to get the best of both worlds with realistic figures running alongside this line.