Did I Expect too much?

OP..."So yes, I was disappointed" Anyone in the hifi game is going to be disappointed MANY times during the upgrade path. Forget about your expectations and roll with the discovery of your personal tweeks improving things...That's the point of hifi. Hifi manfacturers are not here to meet your expectations.

Hey Jason,Now it's Trumps fault...lol.

Parts cost vs. total item selling price is always a black art. 

Back in the early '70's, I was a salesman in a small but decent audio shop. One of the perks was the discount offered to guys like me by manufacturers - want to know a product better?  Buy it for yourself at half the retail price.  It was my "after work" job and I never took a penny out of the store, but got quite a few items I still have and love. 

One was a speaker we sold for about $300 each. Nothing special, but I liked the sound dispersion because of a second tweeter on the back of the cabinet.  We had  a pair on display with the grills off, and some inquisitive patron decided to try seeing how much travel the 12" woofer had by just pushing on the cone.  We ordered a replacement driver and were amazed when it came in with a billed cost of $4.00!    

Our need for value has the bigger companies outsourcing to sweat shops to manage costs. There's also companies that invest in themselves, Dynaudio, KEF, Paradigm to name a few that do everything in house that has the benefit of controlling markup, but the current state of high end pricing has put many brands catering to the 1%. It would be hard to take a modern brand seriously that used spring clip wire retainers for their products.

Just wanted to say thank you for all the comments-you saved me a trip to the therapist.  I’ve calmed down and moved on.