I agree with the refresh of the Marlin. Personally, I take out the 290, just too close to the 300. If they drop the 300 and keep the 290, that would be a misake IMHO.
Personally, I'd like to see a 33 or 36 walk. The DCs are so hot, I'm probably in the minority so I don't see it happening.
Every boat is a compromise. That being said, the bigger walks give you a lot of flexibility. You get a decent size cockpit, a pretty uncluttered helm, decent stowage, easy in/out head. and the vbirth/table. To me safe and secure access to the bow is important for fishing and anchoring. I don't want to be crawling on express decks with rails that seem puny, nor going through hatches and certainly not on bubble decks that you can easily roll off and into the water. They seem nice at the shows. Get in sloppy conditions and you are in an unsafe position. The DCs all done up with hardtops and enclosures are close to walks, but you really can't stay on them. The smaller expresses just don't do it for me. The cockpits are small and to be honest, the helms are overdone with features that they become too cramped. Again, look great at the shows or at the dock but pretty impractical on the ocean. We've camped on the Marlin for a couple of days (2 is about it) with 6 people, albeit my son and I stayed out in the cockpit with a makeshift enclosure over us = tough to do that in the DCs. The 36 express is nice, a bigger would be even better. All that being said, if I were looking/could swing a 36 or bigger it would likely be with inboards and not a GW with outboards.
Each to his own. I will say the Marlin is a pretty decent compromises. It does it all well and looking at the GW line, there is nothing in the 30-33 size that I would want except the Marlin.