I can understand their reasoning, but it really seems like they are underestimating the people who will be buying the Beyblades. I'm quite sure that people would be able to tell the difference between them if the HWS Beyblades were clearly labeled as such.
They would only be extending the life of the line if they chose to release the pre-HWS Beyblades, and thus increasing their profits; so I find it quite odd that they have decided against releasing them. Though, if they had chosen to release them around the same time as HWS, I can see some people getting confused, but that could easily be avoided by spacing out the release of them in a similar way to how TT did it.
There were many "systems" in the plastic generation, and people were clearly able to define the differences between them, so I don't think it would be any different this time around had Hasbro chosen to release pre-HWS.
They would only be extending the life of the line if they chose to release the pre-HWS Beyblades, and thus increasing their profits; so I find it quite odd that they have decided against releasing them. Though, if they had chosen to release them around the same time as HWS, I can see some people getting confused, but that could easily be avoided by spacing out the release of them in a similar way to how TT did it.
There were many "systems" in the plastic generation, and people were clearly able to define the differences between them, so I don't think it would be any different this time around had Hasbro chosen to release pre-HWS.