I'm...
...actually leaning towards "positive" with this.
Even if it's Hasbro going "Lolz, more toyz, here have a plot dumped in your lap", I'm positive that the writers can take almost anything Hasbro can throw at them and turn it into something good.
Also on that note, I've seen the commercial for the season finale. So the Elements of Harmony are going to be involved in making Twilight a princess, huh? Actually, that seems like the best possible method to me, rather than having Celestia and Luna and/or Cadence team up to make Twilight one, or something.
Where is this concept art? I'd like to see it, just out of curiosity.
Also, I think that it actually makes some sense for the Elements of Harmony to be necessary in order to turn Twilight Sparkle into an alicorn. At the time period of the show, the Princesses can't use the Elements themselves even though they could use them before, which is why they have to be bequeathed to the Mane Cast. Because the Elements are necessary in order to turn ponies into an alicorn, the Princesses are prohibited from turning regular ponies into alicorns at will. Presumably, ponies that do not embody an Element of Harmony would not be eligible for transformation as well. (As to
why a Princess would want the ability to rapidly create alicorns, consider Nightmare Moon. If she was able to turn other ponies into alicorns at will, then she could have quickly manipulated downtrodden or simply mean-spirited ponies into forming an army of extremely powerful and angry, yet inexperienced, magic-users that also have the power of flight. Seriously, alicorns are overpowered - there's a reason they are the royal family. If Celestia refused to use the Elements on her own forces to make them stronger, assuming such a thing is even possible, then this would be extremely devastating against her.)
Also, I've personally noticed some similarities between Equestrian society and the State in Plato's
Republic, but I'll probably get smacked if I try to write a philosophy paper on that. >.<