The "stunt trains" controversy.

you know muddy, you are right. train sets like ours help build fine motor and cognitive skills. the way they used to be, the early stage was building to the box design and the result was a feeling of pride and accomplishment.
they were able to be built with little to no adult/older sibling help. then, the parent could buy expansion packs, and junior could extend their learning and skill building to incorporate the new parts.

now, virtually every set requires adult assistance and not much extension is possible. i think even the tracks are too difficult for a young child/preschooler to put together in a basic circle. i can see a kid of about 8 managing, but most 8 year olds are beyond thomas.
the other issue is certain tracks have very slight differences... like some curves can be slightly inclined and look the same as a normal curve until you put them in the layout and wonder why everything is skewiff.