Paul - you are either being deliberately provocative or simply (in the nicest possible way) an old curmudgeon and denigrating the efforts of so many people. Of course preserved lines can never fully recreate the experience of the real railway of sixty years or so ago. However, are we not blessed with the opportunity to see hear and smell these machines? I'm reminded of my experiences when seeing the Vulcan, of which I had purchased a rivet or two, at air displays. I have no "in depth" interest in aviation but to see and hear that aircraft in the air was an experience I'll never forget. Its manoeuvres were not prototypical most of the time but it was a hell of a thing to see and hear. There were people visibly emotional as it flew for the last time.
As far as "recreating the experience" is concerned have you been on the Bluebell on a quiet Saturday in Spring. If you're lucky there'll be a C or O1 on the front and three or four period vehicles. It's too clean - yes - but it's the closest we'll get to authentic branch line travel. On gala days the long trains and large locos could be considered inappropriate but people enjoy them so why not?
At the other extreme you have the GCR. Fifty years in the making and with probably another fifty to go in order to reach the goal of a true main line railway. The infrastructure is as close to authentic as it can be. Passing through Swithland sidings in a Mark 1 corridor coach with a pick up freight being noisily shunted on one side and a train of minerals or an unfitted freight passing in the other direction takes me right back to the 1950s. Another example is the mail trains which are recreated, together with a description of the process, at Quorn. The educational values of being able to demonstrate in microcosm how different the railways were such a relatively short time ago gives kids the realisation of the way things move on, and it lets their grandparents utter the immortal words "when I was a lad".
I declare my hand as one of the originators of the GCR and it's a success of which I am extremely proud.
There are, of course, many other benefits, not the least of which is that to the local economy but I think I'm reading your email as suggesting that the experience of the railway of the fifties cannot be recreated. I argue that it can, even if only occasionally and that it gives many people a great deal of pleasure. We'd be much poorer without it.
Brian