I am pretty sure that this has NOTHING to do with market research. After all, If Yamaha have done their job well, and so have every other manufacturer, they ought to come to the same conclusion, shouldn't they (unless, as I know is far more likely, Yamaha poll their existing market FAR more than any market they haven't currently got)?

No, the underlying truth to the whole thing is that each of these different arrangers are marketed by totally separate divisions, and Yamaha's divisions don't play nice with each other... Just like any large corporation, internal competition is what determines which division gets resources, and it is NOT in Yamaha's arranger division's best interest that the CVP 'home piano' division, or the low-end DGX division get access to the best technology the company has to offer.

The fact that EVERY other arranger manufacturer's market research (and actual sales) show there IS a genuine customer NEED for a good 76 (they certainly wouldn't make them if research and sales showed nobody wants them), and ONLY Yamaha doesn't make them shows pretty conclusively that this has NOTHING to do with market research. But the fact that EVERY 76 and 88 arranger that Yamaha make comes from a different Division to the arranger division certainly lends credence to the assertion that this is merely internal politics and corporate intra-rivalry than anything whatsoever to do with what the CUSTOMER wants.

The DGX/CVP division doesn't want the arranger division encroaching on their market segment, and the arranger division doesn't want the DGX/CVP's scavenging THEIR sales figures, which is CERTAINLY what would happen were they to market a functionally identical T4 or S910 with a 76 or 88 keybed.

It has NOTHING to do with what the customer wants. we are the LAST thing on their minds. It is all about internal divisional rivalry, pure and simple.

This is the only scenario that actually makes any SENSE... Everything else offered up as an 'excuse' for the lack of quality product in this market segment is easily, quickly and demonstrably proven as false.

What WE want is nowhere NEAR as important as preserving Yamaha's internal fiefdom's to the people that run them...