Marzipan:
I certainly understand your upset. However I'd also like to reiterate what I think is a fact: a painful irony about the idealistic pursuit of excellence in making products is that, in the absence of huge mass market demand for such products, those products - - costly to produce - - will, inevitably, be costly to buy. What, for example, do you think the demand is for samples of every possible articulation of the contrabass trombone? What I'm getting it is that the nature of the enterprise in which VSL has engaged is deeply idealistic - - and therefore cannot avoid the irony I mentioned.
I'm not trying to suggest that VSL did not make a mistake in announcing, summarily, a decision that has evoked an intensely negative response from many loyal customers, or that a perceived breach of promise should go unnoticed, but it seems to me in the interest of all concerned, to be aware of each other's situation, to think before ascribing base motives to the other and try to work out some mutually agreeable, if (necessarily) imperfect, compromise.