I think that with some invesment and the right vision G1 could be blown out of the water. I mean with people my age (around 30) there is a huge sentimental draw towards G1 and all that it embodies.
But most people want to go somewhere further than that...
And what do those people get? A great live action movie to get people's blood racing and movie toys that have no hands (jazz, starscream) have no faces (swindle, clone planes) break easily (bumblebee) have backpacks (voyager prime) or... and this is the really bad one... the main bad guy transforms into... nothing really.
Animated is a joke. Well the show is anyway, saw a few episodes seems to be about some creepy friendship between a little girl and a slightly retarded robot.
It's like no-one wants to even try and out do the mid eighties.