Perhaps they looked at the whole figure with all options they had and decided the best way to go both technically + costwise was to make the Gauntlet just for the hand.
You are the voice of reason. I work in product design (digital, specifically), and a business producing a product with the quality (and customer expectations) of Hot Toys doesn't make decisions based on "laziness." Quality is literally Hot Toys entire brand, so it behooves them to pursue higher quality for as long as it remains feasible and profitable.
If a product doesn't have a feature the customer wants, it's usually because it wasn't technically feasible, the manpower wasn't available, the design and production costs were too high, it wasn't in line with the business strategy, or, perhaps most importantly, the customer would not be willing to pay the increased price.
We already know that the community is vocally unhappy about prices, and adding more features or accessories will only drive up that price. They are probably very aware of the risk of putting a product to market that simply costs more than customers are willing to pay.
Not saying Hot Toys are "good guys." The ROTJ triple-dip was pretty aggressively bad.
I wish they would release more accessory packs, or do more standard/deluxe releases. I would love to have more agency in choosing what I'm willing to spend on a piece, for which accessories.
For example, I don't really care about the gauntlet, so if there was a deluxe version or accessory pack that included it, I might still just get the standard. However, if there was a deluxe version for Ragnarok Thor (with the one-eyed head) or an accessory pack for ROTJ Luke, I would have definitely bought those.
I will not, however, buy a new version of a figure I already have if it's released with new accessories a year later (as was done with ROTJ Luke).
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