From the manufacturer's viewpoint, if they didn't have any dealers except those that stocked every single model of their bikes in every frame size, they wouldn't have many dealers. So if a manufacturer has a dealer that sells on special-order only, that may be a poor way to sell that bike in that place, but the alternative is NOT selling that bike in that place.

I ordered my Raleigh Sojourn from my local shop. They don't stock it, but they stock some of the low-end Raleigh hybrid bikes, so they are a Raleigh dealer. REI stocks the Sojourn, but didn't have it in my size.

Anyway, if you look at every bike out there, there's no end to them, and it does help narrow the field to look at what is really available locally rather than what you read about on the internet.