The thing is that when you look at the huge majority of bike owners not many of us actually "need" a bike, so what sells bikes isn't utility points, value-for-money or even user/service-friendliness - it's their bling value, their effectiveness and attractiveness as life style symbols.
So the perceived character of the bike is far more important in the market place than the "real" character of the bike. Much the same mechanism as what have people buying designer jeans, luxury cars, Ipods, Ray-Ban sunglasses ASO.