It makes perfect sense. They want us to buy 1941.
If they were interested in selling games, they might actually officially publish the fact that they produced two new AA games and actually put some info on their website. Second, 1941 predates the release of 1940 by like 60 days and these are two different games in many respects.
You know very well if they put the most recent sculpts in these games, they would sell even better.
1941 is for an entirely different type of gamer and is sold in different stores like toys r us. 1941 is also in places like Target and big box stores. That is why the box is smaller.
Toys R Us never sold Europe or Pacific 1940…it does not fit the consumer profile because it’s complicated compared to the games sold typically.