Originally Posted by
UniChris
Necessity and choice are largely independent.
Even where a solution or replacement is necessary, which one is a choice typically made with little honest reference to necessity - but rather just to desire and (we could hope) budget.
Probably the worst purchase I ever made was replacing a dying car with brand new version of the same thing. I had the money to buy it outright, decided I deserved nice things, and hey, commuting was fun for a week (though the cockpit was less comfortable, the accelerator spring painfully weak, and the windshield slightly distorting). What I hadn't really thought through was what a worry parking it in an urban area would be. Or how I'd more than pay for it a second time in insurance premiums on a value that hadn't previously been worth insuring. Paying that wasn't an issue, but every month it was a reminder that if I'd actually known what it was going to cost in money and concern, I'd have searched a little harder for another used vehicle with four remaining years of service life.
Maybe all your purchases have brought you the joy you priced them at. If so, lucky unusual you.
Begs the question...if someone is making payments, could they afford it? if I can't pay cash, I can't afford it. Banks pay me, I don't pay them.
Pretty sure a number of your complaints could have been found in a car reviews pre-purchase. Some of them reviewers are very thorough!
Your example has nothing to do with innovation though. Sounds more like cutting corners to hit a price point.
As for bicycles I did make a **** purchase. I bought a trek crossrip. I hated everything about it. Years later I bought a Niner RLT9 Rdo and I love everything about it. Live and learn.
Innovation being ..
Thru axle
Carbon
Design
Tire clearance
Stiffer
Yet still being super compliant.
Way more efficient.
Lighter by 6 lbs
Carries loads better for bikpacking than the trek.
A bike is a tool.
Good tools are the essentials of a successful business.
I apply the same mentality to tools in my hobbies. Yet a bicycle can be so much more than a hobby. It can also be fitness, it can also be transportation. Unfortunately distances are fixed, thus 2 variables are mass and energy needed to move said mass.
A bike offering more Efficiency, less weight, ultra compliance, are all necessities of eating less food to go the same set distances.
This applies to me, and is very correct.