Not sure if I can understand the way you chose to make your life. But don't get me wrong, people make their own choices in life and I cannot judge them. I own a house and an apartment, they are not huge but I need to stay in my own place instead of paying rent to someone else. One of the few good things in Romania in the communist era was that you could get an apartment with credit from the state and you could pay for it in years and not having to eat just bread and water. Today is different, and in a bad way alas.
My collection is a very important part of my life, but it is not my life. I cannot have everything and I don't want to. I was raised to understand that you can't have everything because there are more important things in life. With my recent health problems I understood this even better.
Back on helmets: then you haven't encountered TE with his ways of taking money from people and then get lost for years.
Altmanns was the only licensed company to make SW helmets in Australia and there were some good ones and some bad ones from them - they indeed made some helmets that no other licensed prop company made like Scout, Royal Guard etc. Though not even the good helmets made by Altmanns are as good as some of the fan made ones.