There's a circular logic to saying "you'll be spending 50% more for a clean sheet 3/4 chassis sled." It's saying the market is only X sleds, it costs Y to build a new chassis, and the cost will be spread over Z years, so you're going to pay Y/X*Z more for your new sled, and nobody wants to pay Y/X*Z more for an already-expensive toy. Two problems with that. First, if it's easy, great fun to ride, and even a kid can dig it out, then the kid will want one, the wife will want one, and maybe you will want one (again, I'm thinking a scaled down chassis, but one that could be adapted to a range of riders). X just got a lot bigger. Second, a clean-sheet design means less materials and some components can be redesigned and simplified, bringing down per-unit cost. Quite simply, I feel like the market has gone stale and over-priced itself, and something really fresh would sell enough that recouping the R&D will be an afterthought.
Of course there's always a risk to such an investment. Henry Ford dumped a ton of money into a rubber production plant in Brazil just as synthetic rubber replaced natural as the main source for tires. These things happen. For all we know the whole world will turn to the cult of Greta Thunberg, only raw vegans will be allowed anywhere near the wilderness, and our sleds will be confiscated and melted down to build more windmills and kill many, many birds that would otherwise have lived out wonderful, happy bird lives. So we should thank Cat and Poo for playing it safe, Yammi for quietly disappearing, and I guess Doo for being Doo. I really don't know where I'm going with this, so I think I'll call it quits and see if I can find a piece of gluten-free raw vegan bovine before that's banned too...
