I didnt know that. Im out of touch with cycling and with the town I live in. Had a massive shock not long ago when I went to the city centre after probably years and there was a massive shiny hotel
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No more Xmas bargains for me at the annual warehouse sale either:
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400m from the apartmentā¦
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There was an article on CW earlier about Trek having a lot of overstock and are looking to reduce their range and business and possibly have a fire sale.
Also seeing the likes of Ribble offering bigger discounts, appreciate theyāre the sportsdirect of the cycling world but the market has massively contracted.
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Order came through fine yesterday albeit 10 days after ordering.
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Oh!!!
Are you there?
Now I know where you are 
I had a Ribble alloy winter bike many years ago. Cheap but good enough for winter, 9sp 105 group with the 105 wheels of the time. It cost me Ā£799
But I canāt never grasp how they justified the move upmarket. Open mold frames with fancy paint jobs? Just not worth the money.
Now it seems like Planet X are trying to pull the same trick.
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Dolans prices went up quite a bit after covid also, havenāt looked for a while though as Iām not in the market for a bike
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The big manufacturers donāt help themselves by releasing new models every year.
Everyone knows that thereās a new colour scheme and spec coming, so at the end of the year they expect the unsold āoldā stock to be sold off at a discount 
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Stalked by the peopleās poetā¦ 
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If you add up all the current models, options and colour ways it comes out at an extraordinarily high number of bikes. It is unsustainable, even for the 2nd biggest bike company. So 1 model, standard colour ways and the customer will pay (and wait) if they want unique paintwork.
Itās easy to see how it happens. Joe is given model 1 to manage and develop, model 1 becomes model 1x due to a slight tweak. So now he has model 1 and model 1x in all sizes and colours. Then Shimano has an update, so model 1x is now also model 1xy, that also comes in every size and colour. But then Sam decides they need model 2. And that evolves like model 1. And so it goes on and on. And suddenly youāve got 15 models and 15 managers in their silos not realising that it all needs streamlining because, all of these models are, after all, just bicycles!
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Do manufacturers still make āsportiveā frames?
Or are they now called āenduranceā?
Theres then āaeroā and āclimbingā
Non of which your typical Middle Aged, overweight Sunday rider needs 
I see gravel bikes are now diversifying, too.
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Interesting comment, I am using my gravel bike as my winter bike now and have been looking at punting it on and replacing with quicker all road type bike. (Sorry gravel fans, but gravel bikes really make no sense.)
The only bike that fits the bill for me is the Enigma Etape. But itās spendy.
Enigma Escape 
Yeah, a lot of options donāt make it easy on themselves now especially as most will be built in the factory, rather than the likes of Enigma and others that build or assemble themselves?
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Too gravelly, therefore pointless,
Nah, Iāve used it for TTās, triathlonās, endurance, winter and even went down a track once
And once I retire Iām going touring
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Adding in the Sonder El Camino Ti, similar geo for half the price.
I want the mounting points and comfort for some long distance stuff.
My current gravel bike, Orbea Terra is much more in the gravel race area, no mounting points, stiff AF.
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One of the reasons I went for the escape was the mount points and mudguards etc, the ride is fairly comfortable with decent wheels and tyres but definitely slower than a carbon road bike.
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Kinesis GTD 
.
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Apologies for going into work mode here - thereās a commonly used manufacturing concept called āmass customisationā which matches pretty exactly with what you say above. The customer has the impression of lots of choice (as per your explanation) but, in the background, itās much easier than you make it sound.
Essentially, each of your options can be matched with the other options in a discrete way.
The above wouldnāt stop them manufacturing for stock rather than to order - thatās what sounds like the problem is really. And you can see why lots of manufacturing companies get into problems like this - demand booms over covid, manufacturing rates have to increase to keep up and then nobody spots a downturn quickly enough, leading to lots of stock.
The bike companies all made hay while the sun shone for 2 or 3 years, bumping up prices significantly as well.
Then thereās a period of high inflation and suddenly that becomes unsustainable very quickly.
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