Have you driven the TL man? I wouldn't say it was gutless.
On top of that, the TL and late-CL were the vehicles that set the bar in terms of horsepower -- the early 00's Type-S models were offering 260 horses in a sub-35k luxury car before Infiniti, Cadillac, BMW, Lexus, Saab, or Lincoln (I leave out Audi as they still aren't). Sure, HP isn't everything and sure, they're front drivers, but the TL is a very competent vehicle that's simply been outclassed (can you blame it -- it's one of the oldest designs in its segment)