As others have said, this is nothing new. Looking at G1 you have lots of examples such as:
+ Frenzy & Rumble
+ Buzzsaw & Laserbeak
+ Starscream, Skywarp & Thundercracker
...and the list goes on.

But for me, things started getting out of hand in 2003 with Armada's "Powerlinx" where they decided to "upgrade" all the Autobots and Decepticons by simply releasing repaints of them - then they chucked them in the show just for extra appeal. In 2000 we had the Super Car Robot Bros., but that was only limited to three toys. It wasn't as if virtually the entire CR/RiD line got "upgrade repaints" done of them. (-_-) Then the trend continued in Energon - to the point that we have Energon Hot Shot and Energon Energon Hot Shot. But thankfully died down by Cybertron.

Now while I can understand your frustration in seeing HasTak slap new paint on an existing mould and give it a new name to make a new character/toy out of it, I find these "upgrade" repaints much much more frustrating because they're not even new characters. It's literally like that episode of The Simpsons when Malibu Stacy gets a hat. (-_-)

Look at all the gratuitous repaints in Animated...
+ Lockdown: original, Stealth & Blazing -- they're all still the same guy. Why do we need 3 different variations? (and that's not including Bandit Lockdown)
+ Bumblebee: original & Elite Guard -- stick some different colours and call him "Elite Guard"... okay sure, they improved on the stinger weapon, but otherwise... pointless. I would've preferred a new wave of original Bumblebees with corrected weapons (like we had with 70s Camaro movie Bumblebee)
...and the list goes on.

Now I know that variants is nothing new to Transformers either. In 1984 we had both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper available in both red and yellow (and every other colour in S.America) and there's lots more examples... but these variations occured incidentally, not with the specific intent of milking more money from consumers.

Anyway - the best way to tell HasTak what we think about "pointless" repaints is to vote with our wallets. If you like 'em, buy them. If you don't, then boycott them. I usually abstain from buying what I view as "meaningless" repaints - although admittedly the concept of "meaningless" is highly subjective.