The thing is I could buy Whirlpool, GE or Frigidaire as a whole. I could bring back the Maytag dependable care line or beef up the VMW design such that it could last double or triple its current design threshold. However most consumers will not see or understand- they don't care about whats inside mechanically. They will see competitor design #1 with more cycles, buttons and a larger tub while being 150 dollars cheaper- compared to #2 my 30 year commercial grade design with fewer features, smaller tub and $150 cost mark up. The consumer at face value will think 'why should I spend more money for fewer cycles? More money so I can only wash half the clothes per load? I hate doing laundry, even just one load, hence why I let it all pile up to the point I need a super capacity tub. That so called long life heavy duty whatever doesn't meet my anticipated needs'.
In the end my design would sell at least 1:100 under the most optimistic scenarios. No appliance dealer will keep a low selling washer that with a money shot straight up resembles something out of 1965 front of house. It will get moved back further reducing sales until the lineup is entirely pulled off the showroom and eventual offering dropped altogether.
This is exactly what happened to many good washers including the Maytag dependable care. IIRC Lowes, Circuit City, Best Buy, possibly even PCRichards IIRC did not even carry the DC on the show room floor; Sears and HD did however, but it was always off to some obscure back corner or one model sandwiched between Performas, Goodmans and Herrins. It was never front and center like at some local Maytag home appliance centers. Key word some. Actually half the Maytag home appliance centers I saw carried the dreaded slant front machines up front.
Consumers latched on to capacity, then features, then that which offered those things at the lowest cost. Cleanability too if taken into account through consumer reports to sales reps. No one stopped to think steel outter tub, repair records, years in existence, tub seals, number of moving parts, ect, ect.
Consumers voted the best designs out of existence simply because of capacity, cost and face value appeal. Manufacturers simply followed demand.
If we really wish to see the appliance industry change there has to be a grass roots movement whereby people actually realize what they're buying and stop spending money on chintzy machines. If everyone tomorrow began purchasing TC and TR Speed Queens the industry would change overnight. Whirlpool, GE, LG, Frigidaire, Samsung, ect would be forced to top Speed Queen.