They should charge more for it…

Fortunately, it has a remote control so you can settle comfortably back in your chair during the 20 seconds spin-up time, before commanding the stylus to drop.

As I read it, this is the result of a series of university research projects mainly funded by Government R & D grants, and centered on the foremost specialty steel city of yore, Sheffield. Competitors not switched into this environment may well feel that they are at a disadvantage, pricewise. 

It could be a plot to make me think $50-k for an Aussie Dohmann table is exceptional value for money

@newton_john 

I don’t think Wilson-Benesche (sic) got government funding for development of the extremely expensive turntable. It helped them get their business off the ground when they were starting out with more modest products

Not according to Wilson Benesch's website, which I quote below.  My first job was as a Research Scientist with a steel corporation in Sheffield.  Many governments encourage industries through R & D programs, and Britain has done extremely well in the past from high-end audio products from companies like Quad and SME.  Some lines have sold over 100,000 worldwide.

Wilson Benesch was founded upon an idea that it was possible to improve the existing State-of-the-Art within high end audio product design that existed in that time. A business plan was formed that put pure research, genuine engineering and materials science at the heart of a collaborative design process. This collaborative approach to design was literally forged by the first grant application that was written prior to the name Wilson Benesch even being conceived. That grant application set out a plan to develop a new turntable and tonearm based around carbon fibre composite materials technology that would represent genuine innovation within the high end audio industry, elevating performance and setting a new State-of-the-Art. This materials technology did not exist within any home consumer product designs of the time and was the preserve of F1 and aerospace industries at the time. So in order to innovate our grant application identified the need to collaborate with specialists both within the University sectors and industry of the time. The grant application was successful, the first carbon fibre – nomex composite structures ever seen within high end audio design were conceived and thanks in no small part to engineers who worked on Rolls Royce RB-211 carbon fan blades and a number of other highly specialised consultants, the Wilson Benesch Turntable and A.C.T. One Tonearm were launched in 1990. These products went on to win countless awards globally, but notably in Japan and Germany which were leading high end audio industries of the time where exceptional quality and performance was demanded