There's too many subplots in these series with no sense of closure. Prime's news in the latest issue (Devastation #5) made me wonder if it was supposed to be set before the Optimus Prime Spotlight but a quick look at that comic showed me it wasn't.

Already in Devastation there's been two subplots linking back to older Spotlights that have had no purpose except to link into the Spotlights:

In the first issue of Devastation, Optimus Prime ordered Sideswipe and Hound's squad from Spotlight: Galvatron to prepare for immediate travel to Earth. Now the Autobots are leaving the planet before they've even arrived?

In the second issue of Devastation, Hot Rod had a call from Dealer from Spotlight: Hot Rod, asking to get him transferred to Earth. He hasn't shown up yet nor do I think he will.

I think they'd be better off to have a monthly series but with two issues every second month: 18 issues a year. Some comics run on this pattern already. This would allow each (shorter) story to have a consistent artist (instead of a six parter with fill ins). This could incorporate the Spotlight stories among the other stories as well. Each trade could still reprint 6 issues and they could put out 3 new trades a year.

A problem the IDW series have is that to the casual TF fan they won't recognise the Transformers they know (from G1 or the Movie, or Animated). At least with Dreamwave G1 comics you pick one up and it looks familar.

The Spotlights work a bit better but say your a comic reader who remembers Blaster from the cartoon, the cool Autobot that turned into a tape player. Flicking through the Blaster Spotlight would you be inclined to buy it? Long time fans would but the casual one wouldn't.

For someone to come in to the story now a lot wont make sense unless they've read the previous 20-odd issues of the ongoing series (Notice the real numbering of the series is hidden down by the bar code) and all the spotlights. It's not accessible to new readers so I don't think sales can rise very far.