If one thing I can tell you for sure, is that this is not the case, after all these years dealing with Rudi, one thing I noticed is that he is indeed a very generous person, in his personal life, and in his business, and not only with me...But the way he manufactures is very expensive for him, as it is very labor intensive, mainly all is done manually, and in a country that labor is not cheap at all...Parts and labor tend to be a lot cheaper even here in US (many times I ordered parts for him here)
He tried to move around the manufacture for some time, inside the same European Community, China, and some other countries, to lessen the cost of the manufacture, and everytime he did that, he ended going back to square one as the result was not what he was looking for.
Now with the Linnearossa line, and after owning the W3 and W1, it is the first time I do feel that an outside labor do his designs real justice. Let's see when I received this new XJ, I do have the previous version, and for sure it is one of the best portable amps out there, to the point that I got rid of the rest of the portables (I kept the W3 for the DAC capability mainly) if this one sounds better than the old original one, you will see the old on the for sale forum soon...
But as general rule I agree with you...You just have to look around, and you will see for example tube designs that in the 50's were popular, and nothing fnacy, and very cheap, and despite the fact that they do sound good, nowadays the same design, in a fancy box, are sold for an arm and leg as an audiophile boutique item...!!!!