I think you nail it with the word 'hype'. They're good enough basses, but IMHO, no better than many other flavours out there. I've owned three of them and sold each, as they just never made the cut when times got hard financially and things had to go. They had very comfortable necks and stable tubers; the bridge was rock solid and the controls top quality, however, I always found the tone controls fiddly and difficult to dial in a useable tone quickly on the fly.
BTW, my first Wal cost me £50 (not a typo), when I bought it second-hand, as the guy selling it loathed it with a passion!