Overall I think they are a great thing for the prop replica community mostly because I feel the love of prop replica collecting is more important than maintaining accuracy in prop replica collecting. Because of the Legacy lightsabers, there are now a large number of fans that have and maintain a respectable collection that they otherwise might not have if they had to pay pricing for other licensed or fan made replicas.
For my own personal collection, it is a case by case basis. Sometimes it deals with how much a particular design resonates with me. In those cases, I might opt for ensuring higher quality or details. My current collection of legacy hilts is as follows:
Jedi Temple Guard collector box set
Mara Jade collector box set
Jedi Dooku
Kanan Jarris (with belt clip for each part)
Cal Kestis damaged hilt
Gungi
In most cases, I picked these because the designs are cool and other vendor options are either limited or expensive. Even if you only use them for static display, it’s still a great value. Especially something like the Kanan that I got online store on sale for $111.
Like you said, some designs feel if they fall short. Like the Rey lightsaber has a weird switch to activate and the Hasbro was once offered at a super cheap price on sale. So Rey Hasbro Black Series was an easy choice over Legacy. Another example, I really like the Shin Hati hilt but the Legacy version is sort of disproportionate in design. I could deal with slightly oversized but the emitter is too stubby. At this point, I am content with the one I 3D printed for myself.
Another example is that the Ahsoka rebel style hilts are just too thick, I spent close to the same on a set of resin and metal static hilts from Anakin Starkiller.
I think the new Sol lightsaber looks good but I am hoping it might go on sale around Black Friday.
I always look for review and comparison YouTube reviews to help me decide.
