[LazyMan]

1. Their "niche" market has always had three pillars: hobbyists, schools, and small businesses. The only ones that will complain on forums are hobbyists, so that pillar may be eroding (intentionally or not), but that gives no sign of how well the other two groups are doing. If Tormach is intentionally moving away from the hobbyist market and more towards education and B2B, good for them. They have a crapload of stuff they need to sort out, yes, but hobbyists of any market are always first to demand and first to complain.

2. Container prices have tripled since last year. No business can sustain cost increases forever without raising prices eventually. The chip shortage is a problem for everyone as well, even Haas is having issues shipping machines (the lauded TM0 is 6 months delivery, I've heard).

3. The 15L specifically doesn't have much competition for a NEW single phase CNC lathe, if they made it faster and gave it live tools they'd wipe the market entirely. Used machines are an entirely different conversation, the minute you ask "how much is a phase convertor?" you aren't Tormach's market any more.

I don't know man, with the prices now, a Tormach makes no sense for business unless you want a bare bones machine. You don't have to buy a used machine a new haas entry machine doesn't cost much more.