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I think there's a business case to be made for lower-cost park bikes now that many peoples' primary bikes are eMTBs. Back in the day, my cohort of friends had a trail bike and a DH bike. Later, I feel like it became an enduro bike and a lighter trail bike (aka downcountry). Now, I imagine a lot of mountain bikers' pairings will either be a park bike and an eMTB, or a XC bike and an eMTB.

Why is it worth hiding a knucklebox

I feel like I can hear the derailleur just by looking at it 🙊

Some sort of UDH +15mm chainstay standard would fix a lot of XXL bikes.

When I was watching supercross I saw a few of these go off. Its impressive how much they puff up. Also I assume quite a few dudes were running them all season and no one had it go off while just riding. Its a bummer because we all could probably benefit from one of these when riding park, but I imagine its a 1 and done thing when it goes off. And 600$+ is just too much.

counterpoint - $600 is easily the cost of an ER visit for many people 🤷‍♂️

I can speak from recent experience it’s a few times over $600 even with good insurance. Also didn’t help they needed to CT scan most of my upper body... Even as a recreational rider I wear the Fox Baseframe Pro every time I ride, even light trail riding. I’ll welcome any advancements for pros and weekend warriors. After coming close to breaking my back on this last spill I’ll take the extra bone insurance and defer my groupset upgrade. And after watching Luca go 50 mph and Millie nearly throw off the Earth’s rotation, glad most riders should have options...

I have a '23 Smuggler and every time I get that "new bike" itch I end up asking myself why? The Smuggler isn't perfect but it's so damn good I can't convince myself a new bike is worth it (and I'm pretty darn good at finding reasons to justify a new bike). I suspect a lot of folks are in a similar situation...