I would guess that the "colour-vomit" is more for easily identifying some of the pieces (connectors, knob wheels etc) than anything else... This would make sense for an audience of mostly children, but for a top-of-the-range model, out of reach budget-wise for most parents, it doesn't make much sense to me either... And I agree with the rest of your points... I mean, Sheepo managed to make a McPherson setup in his MPS, how difficult could it possibly be for LEGO? At least they bothered to make a paddle gearbox, I guess...