Norco does not stock ONE brand, Axiom. I'm sorry to say that information is incorrect.
Norco carries many, many brands.
Brands with lots of weight behind the name, like Shimano, SRAM, Ritchey, DT Swiss, Brooks.. I could go on quite a long time.
Touring bikes being a niche market is not part of MY attitude, it is a fact of the market. Take some time to look at the fact of the matter. Shops are stocking Mountain and Road bicycles made for sport and racing at a rate FAR greater than they are carrying touring specific bicycles. Large manufacturers (Kona as an example) have big bike lineups with ONE touring offering. Two if you count that the Ute could be toured on, although it is marketed as a utility bike. Activity on the Touring forum is less than half the mountain biking forum, and roughly 1/12th the road biking forum - and a lot of the MTB crew goes to MTBR instead of Bikeforums. (According to the stats, MTBR has roughly twice the active members Bikeforums does, and its a forum dedicated just to mountain biking!)
Yes, touring is a smaller market. The amount of tourers is quite small compared to the amount of people interested in using their road and mountain bikes for sport, recreation, and competition. And they can carry $3,000 touring bicycles for you, or carry a $3,000 XC MTB with that same cash and have it push off the floor much faster.
The accessories that Norco is selling under the Axiom lineup, as you said, are not good for touring, and are pretty mediocre in general. However, these kinds of bags are sold FAR more to commuters than tourers, who often have much lower demands on how exquisite their equipment is.
If you want a plane Jane vanilla bike Norco is fine. If you want anything in the touring realm...look elsewhere.
This is true. This is also the same story with most other big name manufacturers who produce touring bikes. They put together a bicycle that carries the basic functions tourers want, and call it that. Many big name manufacturers don't even have touring bikes anymore. The market has some excellent smaller producers though, who do great bicycles.
I have empathy for your situation though, being a bike tourer myself. I ordered a Bike Friday and brought in some Carradice bags from the UK, because the equipment readily available locally is a disappointment to behold.