Lego is 90% imagination:
Yes the new kits are designated for certain stuff but if you get a tub of the generic pieces then you have what we all remember. your car won't look anything like an Audi but it'll be a wheeled lego brick. Then refer to the above picture
Imagination is being supplanted because we can feed ourselves all these wonderful images and worlds that we can dream up in computers and movies. Lego just changed their business to keep up, if they didn't they wouldn't exist, which would you prefer?