Almost all customers see bikes as a unit. For every bike-savvy tourist that buys a LHT, there are nine bike-illiterate weekend warriors and college kids buying one to putz around 3x a year.

To that end, we are not the driving force in the market. We may define trends and we may condemn bikes that don't check enough boxes, but as long as an LHT complete build has "enough" touring chops that it can stand alone, it will sell to the blind masses. Now, the blind masses are a fickle group, and so they won't buy the LHT if the Salsa Marrakesh or the Jamis Aurora looks like a better deal. So, Surly will carefully pick and choose components, scrape the bottom of the barrel for stems and seatposts, and generally offer a sub-optimal build to meet the price point demanded by 9/10 people.

You can do a built-to-order LHT- surly sells frames, and bike shops are happy to facilitate. You lose the collective bargaining power Surly uses to get components at 30-40% less on a complete build than if you buy them individually, so your complete bike will cost 30-40% more.