The Leica M6 limited editions is what caused all this. This is they started to go astray. They whored themselves out so hard with their beanie-baby strategy whilst ignoring practical innovations, that they immediately lost the Beverly hills old money Persian/Stealth-Jew types, then slowly everybody else until only the new money Chinese, trust fund kids post-rehab, and the most autistic of hobbyists and pros remained. This hurts brand image, and the product goes from general aspirational purchase to something mocked as a fashion accessory for the rich and tasteless.
If they wanted to go for broad appeal, they should have spread their product range logarithmically like Apple. Domestic production and 9000-hour hand polished blocks of brass for the rich conspicuous consumers, reliable tools made of aluminum screwed together with delicate Vietnamese fingers for the nerds. Maintaining standards and design cues would have created genuine cult appeal and made the brand a cultural icon.
If they wanted to be a richfag staple over long periods of time, restricting their range and customization to create a sober "No you can't make us bend to you. But would you be caught dead holding some creaky oriental appliance?" would weld the brand into the minds of the rich for generations. The literally would work on conspicuous consumers, urban stealth-wealth, sensitive secular Jews, artsy nerds, everyone.
But they went for the Beanie Baby strategy instead.
