Saddest thing is the basic design though on some aspects is mechanically flawed is also a damn good sounding instrument.

If you were 100% certain to get a quality build then most other issues fall by the way side and the chances increase dramatically that you would buy it anyway regardless of price... Most other instrument manufacturers CEO's have worked that out, or have at least bastardised it reasonably well into a more user friendly version of 'you get what you pay for' regime.... I suppose I should count myself as one of the lucky ones with my 2016 model LP that so far has only had its Switchcraft switch fail.

But hey, with $1.2b in revenue and they still can't manage the numbers says buckets about who is running that show...