Honeslty? I'm going to be
that guy and give my two cent on all the arguments on how and why these 'look like shit':
Yes I am aware of the fact that 'intrusive gimmicks are evil' (to quote a certain internet toy reviewer) and can understand that people are annoyed by the gimmicks. However, knowing how this fanbase is, I'm going to bring up the fact that pretty much nothing short of a masterpiece figure will ever satisfy people who want a modern, udpated and sometimes true-to-cartoon representation of a specific character. You know its true, deep down, you'll never be happy with anything less. This type of market is very markedly different from the 'retail market'.
Now I'm also aware this will easily come off as making me a 'hasbro shill' for daring to defend some shady toy-making company. However (and this is just my theory) I do think quite a bit more goes into deciding if a character gets a new figure. One thing which has emerged quite a bit in recent years is just how far remolding and shared engineering has come and I think getting more than one use of a mold, if possible, has become a large motivator in the design process of who gets a new figure and who doesn't. Now, again, this is just my theory but it goes like this: presumably, when it was decided that PotP would have combiners, it became clear they were aiming on having some of the late-G1 combiners done. And, as it happen, Monstructor/Dinoking could very much share engineering with the Dinobots so it they decided this was a good opportunity to make new dinobots.
Another thing worth noting and this is again purely my theory is that Transformers has begun suffering its 'brand fatigue' after being pushed so much into the spotlight in 2007 by the bay movies.

Now we have 3-4 transformers toylines occupying the same shelf at the same time and, if my observations are correct, seem to be selling less and less. Toys are on the way out and Transformers is less and less making money in north america.
From what I get on posting here, there is a very strong chunk of the older fanbase who simply do not really care for retail releases and prefer more high-end, more costly 'collector' figures which are the Masterpiece and Third Party figures. After all there is hardly a fanbase as whiny and unpleasable as Transformers fans.