I do recall people boasting that they intended to "complete" their collection after #100 was published. Pocket deciding to drop that last trilogy (at first to be called "The Last Roundup", IIRC; title later given to a different hardcover) took the wind out of those fans' sails.
A similar phenomenon happens in comics, with companies sometimes restarting their numbering because collectors/investors can't resist a new #1. Sometimes, they will revert to the original numbers after everything equalizes again.
I do like reading in publication order because you get a sense of where the franchise was situated at that point in time. Had the Pocket numbering been more thought out in the beginning, it would have really appealed to my collecting mentality.
I remember the Dillard books were published out of order in the UK -- they were alternating new and previous titles -- meaning that a shock death of one of Ms Dillard's lower decks characters happened before his introduction.
