Peter, you have to be realistic.
IF you cut corners and make a cheap, nasty POS (Think Chinese cars and motorbikes.....OK any mass produced Chinese crap) make a big-enough margin on it to pay outthe inevitable writs against you and you STILL undercut everything else on the market, you must be doing something right.
My Rotary flying is limited to Nitro models, R/C. Iwould not fly in a Robbie. Ihave looked at the Rotorway....in some ways superior , in others abysmal...compare TCO of a Robbo against anything else
the risk-benefit ratio is very much in the Robbo's favour...IF you need or want to fly ,badly enough, you now have the choice of the Guimbal.
Like it or not, Robinson is the Henry Ford of the Heli world,
both bought a game-changing machine to the market -place...both were/are slightly unorthodox in their controls, both tricky in their handling, both bite foolsor those who drop yheir guard.
If I were contemplating Rotary, needed a reliable, workhorse machine and had a limited budget, I would wait 'till I could afford a Cabri...I just wouldn't countenance the cheap to buy, dear to maintain, pay to rectify design inadequacies machines that appear to be Robinson.
They have their place, ...IMHO every Robbo purchaser knows they are lacking and they will have to pick up the tab for blades, fuel tanks......
but the entry price is tempting, especially if you hire it out!