While I do agree with you... A Con-cor Pioneer Zephyr that works is better then a Fine-N-scale Zephyr that can barely make 24" radius curves...
I think that Kato would come up with a better solution, if they did that locomotive. Earlier in this thread, someone pointed out that Kato could trim the tops off the trucks to clear, and that they have already done this for at least 1 product. So with broader curves, you couldn't see the difference, and with tight curves, it would look no worse that non-prototypical side skirts.
We are contributing to thread drift here...