Kids don't matter, this is a high end/high profit hobby. The card companies don't care about kids, they don't have the funds to make them money. They are fine loading up 100 dollar packs with 20 dollars in product and selling that to adults. Period.
Sadly this is true. For as much as Topps and MLB say it's about getting kids back into the hobby, that's crap. Topps continues to "add value" to products (new inserts, new parallels, etc.) ... you really think a 10 year old cares about "added value" in a product? Nope. More added value equals higher priced cards.
As for Leaf and Panini, well, I'm not a fan of unlicensed stuff because cards without logos and a jersey and hat/helmet being completely airbrushed just looks dumb and boring (in my opinion). Also, buying back a bunch of graded cards and packaging them out, meh. That's hardly innovative.
If Leaf wants to do something with buybacks, do a "Recollection Collection" type set. Buyback old UD or Topps or Donruss cards and get them signed and put together a product like that. Hell, you don't even need high-end retired players for something like that. I can think of tons of old Mariners players I'd love autographs from that probably wouldn't cost much (Langston, Presley, P. Bradley, S. Bradley, etc.) I think the Recollection Collection set was one of the best things of the last 10 years.