I don't know if I would call it "Pointless", but probably not high on a lot of people's lists including mine.
I think, and Pinky can correct me, that he was referring to asking for Rubicon to concentrate on the plastic kits.
Of all the things they could be spending time on, this is what they pick?
I have to ask, who at Rubicon Models decide which projects to start working on?
I get the impression (and once again I may be wrong) but these "side projects" are something that is assigned to "new" staff.
As has been discussed previously, there are bottlenecks in their process of delivering a complete boxed kit to the warehouse. Some of them are out of their hands (contract work and availability of moulding machines are two that have been mentioned).
As they expand they will have to have projects for staff to work on. The big complex kits will require a lot of work from their skilled designers. New staff will have to prove themselves, I suspect by being given a project (or even choosing and getting one of their own approved). Some of them might not see the light of day, others may be reviewed and be found to be suitable for release.
The non plastic kits avoid the production bottleneck (as well as being being more economic for small scale production).