According to Alex Milne, the glyph symbols on Starscream were from the movie production, so at least he has a reason. Yeah, I figure the others are gimmicks.
As for Takara, it depends on how much independence they want in the movie line. Their 2007 line was almost the same as Hasbro's, aside from the first Bumblebee, some packaging changes for the FABs, and Premium Battle Mode Prime, IIRC.