Interesting article. I agree with you that these canisters are inferior in terms of storing pieces, but I don't think that's what Lego wanted to make. I think they wanted some sort of way to distinguish Bionicle and Creator mini sets, etc.. from other sets. Also, they have to think about shelving at the stores. A tall can with small shelf space is much more efficient than a big flat box, where it covers a lot of space. If you go to a store, you never see sets stacked on top of each other on the shelves.