@brent
hi Brent and all – yep that rings true to me – makes more sense both in terms of manufacturing and market flexibility. Even decades ago there were blanks where the additional switches you could have bought were – so yep all sounds very plausible to me.
I assume it is similar with making batches of car colour or seats – you take a calculated estimate of market and how many to make in a batch and then big boys Lego. But as we keep saying it is the lack of reliable info that is frustrating – if I was told in February – sorry it is going to be July and there was a track record of truth I would have been disappointed but at least I could plan for that and as has already been said given other manufactures delivery times I would have accepted it.