not directly on point, but since Todd raised it - as a kid, I hated that all the Joe sidearms were sculpted onto the figures. I wanted nothing more than workable holsters and sidearms that could be held. There were some from other lines, but nothing that ever really worked great. If I remember, Shipwreck's strange little pistol became my go-to gun, as there just weren't any others that worked.

I say this to simply agree that both articulation and attention to detail absolutely did matter then to kids, and still does matter now, going by how my son plays, and how he judges a figure.

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This, definitely. When I was a kid, the only Cobra figures the Joes ever threw in the cell on the GI Joe HQ were figures without any grenades, guns, or knives sculpted on, or at least not too noticeable. My imagination just wouldn't let me pretend they weren't on the figure if they were right there on the chest, for instance. In fact, one time while playing with a friend, we got into an argument because I was Cobra and Scrap-Iron was jailbreaking by using one of his grenades.
"You don't have any!"
"They're right there on his chest!"
"My guys took them away when they caught him!"
"Nuh-uh! They're still there! I see them!"

MarkM, what did you do with captured enemy soldiers with sculpted weapons? They were disposed of humanely I hope and in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I'm pretty sure I didn't take prisoners. I let God sort them out.

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When I was young and SW was big I bought them up just because they were SW. When Micronaughts hit I begged for improved articulation on SW, but still bought them for who they were. Grabbed a ton of Mego small figs (Chips, Dukes of Hazzard,ect) until Joe finally hit. It was off to the races then.

I didn't buy another SW figure until 30th ann collection (where they started adding articulation) and only kept some of my favorites from the 1970's and early 1980's.

I guess to the point that some articulation does matter, at least a 1980's joe fig to me. If there is no other option I will bite but that is very rare for me to do.

I can say with certainty that when I was a kid and there wasn't anything else, I didn't think much on articulation. I played with Star Wars figures and had the want of figures double handing guns and such. I wasn't satisfied with stiff Stormtroopers holding a gun forward in a zombie looking pose and no head movement. But again there wasn't anything to compare it to so I lived with it.

Then came GIJoe figures with their articulation. At first is was no big deal due to the straight arm. It was neat they had elbows, but that wasn't too big a deal. Finally swivel arms happened! That changed everything. Star Wars, my old Kenner figures, and everything else was forgotten.

Like I've said before, I can't speak for what kids think. I do feel however that it wouldn't be much different. A kid that had a huge interest in action figures I wouldn't think would be happy with bricks to play with. I tend to think a kid would be no different today than before. When exposed to better options, they will prefer the fully articulated figure over something that just looks like a crash test dummy leaning against a wall.

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If they refused to relinquish their weapons, they were terminated. Cobra gives no quarter.

PTE's quality control is spotty, though. I've had PTE guys break right out of the package. Their thin hip joints and a stuck waist joint that broke instead of turning. And a not so great/deformed ankle rivet.

Also, I had 5-points-of-articulation Kenner stormtrooper, greedo, Vader, tusken raider figures when I was young and those figures arms and hips got so loose they flopped around. Really young kids are gonna be hard on whatever you give them. That's one reason there's age recommendations on toys.

Well I know when I was a kid I started with Kenner's Star Wars, and then dropped them when GI Joe came out. The funny thing was I was sure Star Wars would adopt Joe's construction because it was so superior and then when that happened I'd start collecting Star Wars again. Needless to say, it never happened, and I never collected star wars aside from a few modern figures.
I have to say that I am a fan of the Microman style articulation. I do view them as more art than toys because they are too fragile for backyard 10 year old play. But the design of them is so impressive. I just wish the "blanks" were available here. I saw some awesome Star Wars/Microman customs and I always wanted to try something like that, but they were so expensive.