but when you buy a bike from waterford today, are you getting something as good as an Ellis? Who knows? It's that uncertainty and the anonymity of the craftsmen involved that limit the price a company like Waterford can get from a bike.
No doubt, you can get a good bike from a factory. This thread is really about pricing theory, people get doctorates studying that subject. You addressed the question from the idea that more money should provide more value. Maybe that should be true, but it certainly isn't true in the bicycle industry, and it's not true in the small community of custom bicycles.