There's almost no point in it being a lego toy, because you're just assembling a crude model of an x-wing, and the only thing you can make with the set is...an x-wing. Why not just...play with a model x-wing?
Seriously... watch the lego movie... or hell just look at some of the sets they've released based on the movie.
I think this one illustrates my point:
http://static.indigoimages.ca/...
Take a good look at it. The 'goblet' piece is a gun. The wagon wheels are the engine turbines, the turbine housings are those molded castle tower pieces. The half-barrel is the pilots seat. Torches reworked into a missile launcher. The working catapult?... well they kept that.
They took a medieval gate and cart and turned it into something akin to a pod-racer, as an official set.
The lego movie and movie sets simultaneously agrees with all your complaints ... and then proves your conclusion wrong.
Granted a single small lego set is usually only much good for a particular model or a variation on a theme. But after you've got 5 or 6 lego sets especially if they are from different themes you can build pretty much anything. Medieval space ships, sailing ships out of space lego, Giant transforming robots out of lego city vehicles.
Honestly there were a bit of a bad spot in the late 90s where the lego wasn't as good, but the current sets and over the last 5-10 years are an absolute joy.
I recommend any parent with kids becoming lego aged to start with a basic bulk bucket. I think there's a yellow bucket out right now 600 basic bricks for $40 bucks.
Then you throw in a star wars or batman set or two so the kid has a couple minifigures, droids (my son loves r2d2s), light sabers, etc. And then build out from there.
The new lego master builder academy sets are BRILLIANT too.
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Mas...
The instruction books alone are nearly with the price of entry.