if VW started producing anniversary editions from say the 5th yr onwards instead of from the 25th... would we really be that bothered by them now? Can it affect the cache of our cars in the future?
The 20th was the first Anniversary edition, though maybe VW would like to forget that model as it was a mk3 Golf! It was actually quite a nice car spec wise unlike the standard mk3 GTI. And it offered no power advantages over the standard GTI.
We didn't get many other special editions in the UK but in mainland Europe there have been plenty of special edition GTIs over the years, especially with the mk2 Golf and it doesn't seem to have diluted the cache of the GTI brand at all considering the Golf GTI has been going for nearly 35 years - how many other 70s and 80s hot hatch icons still have a direct ancestor today? Give VW the chance to get the thing into production before you judge it, just think of it as a run out model for the mk6.