You can do R&D, but you can make absolutely terrific grinders without it. Most of the “innovation” happening in this space seems to be more novelty than actual noticable performance/quality gains for the end user.

That’s not a bit hyperbolic, it’s a full blown straw man argument.

There is nothing inherently expensive in a good grinder, not from an engineering, manufacturing or materials perspective. Sure small volume manufacturing is more expensive, but we’re still talking brands making thousands of units and not small one-off productions, so it’s not that much more expensive.

I want a good grinder, and I also want to pay for quality. They simply charge more for the equipment than I believe is reasonable, because the amount of work and cost required to produce the product is fairly low.

A grinder is a pretty simple piece of equipment though, the high pricetags many go for is honstly unjustified IMO. A grinder has been a solved problem for a long time. You don’t need to invent anything new to make a great grinder and there’s no artisinal skill involved in making a good one either.