Green label has just been rebadge as gold reserve & gold has been rebadged as platinum label.
Its the same stuff.
Different blends. I thought the same thing at first until I tried Reserve. It's smokier and clearly a different blend of malts at a different ratio. Considering the smokiness I'd guess the Islay malt is heavily aged, perhaps helping justify the price.
And that's the problem. Walker Green was the best blended malt for the price. They obviously weren't making enough money on it, either because of demand, poor marketing (it was a new scotch, debut in 2004 I think?) or poor margins. Sourcing a steady supply of malt whiskey can be tricky.
I agree, but blended MALT scotch is amazing. Whiskey aficionado's agree. The only reason it isn't more prevalent is because of manufacturing complexity and perhaps its acquired taste. Think of Red Zin. It's a lovely wine, but few people actually like it at first and just stick with Pinot Noir.