Agreed absolutely. A lot of the Classics 2.0 toys are meant to stand out on their own. It's not longer a G1 solely series and Hasbro has gone to some degree to do that by adding a label on the back of their packaging to indicate what era they come from - even repaints.
But FFN got it right. If you know, it adds something for ur appreciation. If you don't know, your ignorance won't mean you've lost anything.
I think the Takara version is much worse if they combine the continuities. Sounds like Robot Masters...
I do too. I mix a lot of Movie/Cybertron/Classics 1.0-2.0, Energon around a lot.