I'm not sure about useful, but both of your examples would definitely be very interesting, which would be good enough for me if someone managed to pull one of them off.
The same curiosity as in watching crime scenes when it comes to "science" like this.
Edit: Perhaps you could inform me of exactly why you don't like this? Preferably in some way more precise than by putting the word "science" in scare quotes, if that's possible. ;)
What's my problem with the kind of bizarre "science" this article writes about? It's ethics. Not everything that's possible in science should be done. Creating monsters (and I don't just mean dinosaurs but creatures like fluorescent bunnies and mice with human ears) is not one of the things to do.