Well having grown up with the much later, Marvel version What If? I have to say although I could see a original reader of the stories being bothered by them for interrupting your monthly story of a character I can see what a great tool they could be for writers stuck with not allowing certain events happen to characters. Suddenly you had the freedom to have Supes and Lois married or kill someone off or whatever. I think DC would have been better served to do what Marvel did and place the stories in a series like What If? Or maybe save them for annuals or whatever. If Marvel had started doing What If? Stories in their regular series I probably would have been less of a fan of them.