So is this 'elastic block' stuff a bullshit marketing gimmick or is it actually different from Litecoin, Terracoin etc
Did you read any of the thread? The block reward is based on network difficulty
Also, it's being put out ahead of time, with a scheduled launch date and supposedly no premining(although you can't really tell that until you look at the chain on day 1), so that's a novel new approach compared to the rush of new coins that have been announced ten minutes after the genesis block is mined.