No they are not a scam. In fact the AA's are very poor for the application. They cannot dump power like a 2/3A pack or lipo. If I were you and want to know about lipo's I would do some more reading. They will dump tons of power. You can get a lipo as high as 10,000mah as far as I know. I have about 60 lipo's and they are 20X's better than 2/3A or any nimh config. or cell type. Once you go lipo you never go back. It is a big hype buy it's for a reason. They are simply the best bang for your dollar. your AA's at 2500mah can dump maybe 5 amps. A 2500 lipo 20C can dump 50 amps. Theres the reason they rock. If you tried pulling 50 amps out of a AA you would have a fire.