They've obviously studied their business model and determined this is the best way for them. And I think learned from their Leica CL lesson.
All there is to learn from the CL from 1974 is that they should make a cheaper M in 2021.
1974 is not 2021. Besides, the CL was garbage.
We are deep into the consumer society, owning 10 Leicas is not unrare, as opposed to 1974 where owning more than two cameras was a crazy idea.
Make the new cheap Leica cheap enough so that it doesn’t rival a M and yet every Leica nut would need to own one because of brand validation.
Make it like a Bessa/Zeiss, with a regular hinged door like on all the regular cameras, make it from magnesium alloy (not brass), keep the original high quality Leica RF mechanism (not a japnese/bessa/korean knockoff).
1500$
I’d buy one. We’d all buy one on top of our True M cameras. I need one true original but cheap Leica for when I’m shooting in dangerous places. Remote places. In -20c degrees temperatures. When skiing. When getting drunk. When in Rome. When in Barbès-Paris. When in Harlem. When in a dirty Mahala.
For all those times that I actually have a M with me but am using the damned Nikon FM2n/F3/Minolta around my neck.
Because gone are the days where you could treat a 1500$ M4-2 as a disposable garbagey second camera and yet, 1500$ is still good money for any company.
Think R4 body with a RF. Cheap so you don’t wanna touch it, yet a native Leica that accepts your M lenses so it always beats your Nikon that’s waiting to be used.
Hey, I’m maybe totally out of whack. Who knows
