The trade-offs seem fair to me. Programming is over the heads of a lot of people (myself included, for the most part), but everybody can think of fun things to do with spycams.
My thoughts:
a) It's a simpler kit--if you're familiar with prospect theory*, or even if you stared at a Vex kit for a while wondering "What the heck am I gonna build?", you know this to be a Good Thing.
b) Instead of a good Saturday afternoon for the Squarebot, you can now have a moving robot (bear in mind the general public's perception of what a robot is) within a short time--with an arm. This is a Good Thing.
c) The price point is particularly nice. The original kits were a steal at $300, but a $200 price point is going to catch a lot more eyes. It's now in sub-Wii territory, which should make parents wince less, and I imagine it'll pick up some more interest from hardware hackers (
MAKE: already noticed). When I looked at things that could replace Vex in FTC, I couldn't find anything to match Original Vex for the money (
my data); I imagine someone looking for mod-friendly hardware in that relative size is making the same comparisons in their head.
I won't be buying, but I'll be watching.