The minivan comparison is foolish because a minivan does the job of a minivan very well. The Rhodes car is a general purpose pedal car that does the job of a a general purpose pedal car poorly.

That is why I'm ripping on it. They sell this thing to carry 700lbs cargo, but the brakes suck and the handling is dangerous.

Do you also not understand the significance of my remarks on gearing? 42 possible gear combinations is an insane nightmare to keep track of. How many of those gears are actually useful? How many are pointless duplicates?

All these problems could be fixed and it wouldn't actually make it any more expensive. It wouldn't make it less fun to ride at 11mph. It would make it safer, faster, better handling, and more reliable, therefore also making it easier to use and more fun. For that reason it's not defensible.