It's times like this that I sure do miss Suntour. Then there would be a good old, knockdown and drag out, pricing war. Shimano is sneaky and underhanded. Though much less so than was the case in the early 1980's. For instance:

I just bought an Ultegra triple crankset. Came with instructions and a cap that fits onto the left crank arm. The instruction specified I'd need a tool made by Shimano to properly install this plastic-nut! It was a weird, and no doubt proprietary, shape. Did I cave in and order this tool to install this plastic do-dad? Nope. I foraged through my tools and decided a pin-spanner would work very nicely. Ha! Ha! Yours truly - 1. Shimano - 0.

I have absolutely no doubt that we'll see Hollowtech II winding it's way into every bottom-bracket on the face of the road and trails. Octalink will continue to be phased out. I have mixed feelings about this - the Hollowtech II bottom-bracket is very nice indeed. But their halting production of the best of the Octalink is a dirty, underhanded trick - typical. Octalink works just fine for most users. Causing scarcity of replacements is good business - for the company. Steer us all into buying their latest innovation.

Next they'll have invisible bottom-brackets. The entire mechanism consisting of electromagnetic fields holding everything together. It will be cheap to buy initially - but only Shimano electromagnetic batteries can be used to power it. Those will cost a weeks pay. And cause cancer in laboratory mice.