Well it didn't seem to work for AMG only a couple of years earlier, but Skoda really latched onto something and it seemed to pay off for them. I have to say there's something about a small hatch diesel that I quite like, with the torque making up for any lack of power that you'd get with the base petrol versions in some ways. But I've never driven a diesel "hot hatch", so you could be right and that it's an answer to the question nobody ever asked, as the petrol equivalents have the power anyway