Two things.

(1) These are not the same cookies which were served originally. Back in the old Midwest Express days, more than once I was on a flight with inoperative ovens, and that meant no cookies warm nor cold. These new are designed to be served either warmed or not warmed. More than a year ago they tested these, and they were described internally as "the cookie of the future" which could be served either way.

(2) Hanging your hat on, essentially, "that's how they originally intended, and so anything different is unacceptable" is just not realistic. Many things changed over the years with the original Midwest Express through the 80's and 90's.

As for the history of the cookies themselves, Midwest Express pre-dates them -- they were not a day-one item. For many years they were not on all flights after 10:00am, but were only served as dessert on flights where lunch was served, not on dinner flights nor on shorter snack flights like CLE-MKE. And in the early years they were smaller, messier things served from a passed basket. Later, when they introduced the FRJ, they had a notiorius problem getting the cookies "right" for quite a while.

Are the warmed ones better? You bet they are. Will all mainline flights have warmed cookies? That's the plan. Would it be better, overall, to not have cookies at all if they are not warmed? Not by a long shot.