I agree with the fact that making Supermarionation is VERY expensive - the guys required to pull this off all adds DRAMATICALLY to costs plus the making of the puppets themselves = another small fortune {Team America WASN'T cheap} but a smash hit with many... but this is different, the Audience wasn't expecting anything other than what they saw on the screen, whereas, we FANDERSONS do expect certain things and most of which stem right back to our childhood - a certain something..... The way forward is really like has been said here already, yeah lets go with CG - but leave the BASE alone " AS IS " but in CG, this is simple enough {simple not the right word... Economical
} to go with, just leave the characters/craft etc etc ALONE, just maybe they will get away with it.