We just recently had a tournament over here (with a kit) and we reached a conclusion similar to the OP's - the way promos are done for this game is the one remaining issue we have with it. Our reasoning was somewhat different than the OP's, however - in fact, it was the opposite
The thing is, you CAN'T use promos in Organized Play and, the consensus among players at our tourney was, if you use them outside, you are playing on an uneven battlefield. The end result? Nobody uses their promos - we just sort of HAVE our prizes and we look at them in our binders because we like to be respectful of everybody playing this wonderful game and give them the courtesy of playing on a level playing field. I would much much rather have the initial promos (minor heal, disenchant, etc) with alternate artwork - that way all your promos are legal and you can show off your achievements as opposed to collect them in a binder until they are released (which, if CoK is any indication, will actually never happen - 1 out of what? 16 promos gets released with this set. At this rate of official sets and promo releases, the promos far outstrip the capacity of the sets to incorporate them). My $0.02 but yeah, I am peeved about the promo system as well :p