Have you ever used a Jesper Voxnaes design like a Pilar? You think CRKT isn't paying him for his time and experimentation? How is a frame lock "super tactical"? It's a liner lock that's thicker and integrated into the scale. Is a compression lock or CBBL not even more "super tactical" than a frame lock? You don't like titanium? What about all the exotic blade steels Spyderco uses? You don't like ball bearing pivots? Does that make Spyderco's super smooth opening bushing pivots "super tactical too? Is the Caribbean's two tone, machined texture handle too much for you? Should they quit making the all black models? After all, matte black handles with black coated blades and hardware have their origins in the tactics of light discipline by being minimally reflective in low light operations. Don't forget that Spyderco was the first "tactical" knife because they were the fist to combine one hand opening and a pocket clip on the same folder. I think you're just cherry picking things you don't like as excuses.
I think you misunderstood what I said, multiple times. I was listing various and unrelated features I'm not interested in, not describing one kind of knife. The fact that I don't like titanium scales is unrelated to the fact that I don't like many contemporary "tactical" design languages like those used by SOG, Spartan, etc... Which is unrelated to why I don't like ball bearing pivots. Etc etc.
Nor am I saying that because I like Spyderco for their design and experimentation, that other brands are not employing design or experimentation. I like the Glesser design aesthetic and some of their collaborators. That is simply a fact about why I like Spyderco, not a reflection on other brands.
I don't think there's many companies that can compete with Spyderco's folders.
Fixed blades are another story though. I have a few Spyderco fixed blades and they're definitely high quality knives, but the models I have seem to be lacking something in the ergonomic department. I find myself carrying a Helle much more frequently than a Spyderco. They're such different kinds of knives that I find it difficult to compare them though.
I think, for me, each knife maker is doing their own thing for the most part and offering different things.
Yes, there are overlaps in some cases- and clear cases of one manufacturer parking their tanks on another's lawn. But for the most part, what each of the big brands offer is specific to them...
Take the Endura in FRN as the ideal middle of the range knife.
Look at (say) what Cold Steel offer in the same price bracket and your comparing apples and oranges.
Then look at Benchmade or ZT and each of them is offering something quite specific to their brand ethos.
Sure, zoom out far enough and they are all pocket knives in the 3-4" range and technically competing to be in my pocket. But there's no way a (Say) Cold Steel Recon 1 tanto and an Endura are drinking in the same pub let alone drinking the same beer.
Real competition for me is like motorbike market in the 90s :
You've decided to buy a 750cc sports bike.
You've got £5k to spend.
You can go with one of "The Big 4" from Japan and there are but small differences between them.... Tiny variations in style and execution but no real performance difference or cost-to-live-with.
In that context Spyderco is more like Ducati- still a 750cc sports bike but something very different in terms of feel and performance.
Apologies for the ramble :)
Warhammer 40000 is- basically- Lord Of The Rings on a cocktail of every drug known to man and genuine lunar dust, stuck in a blender with Alien, Mechwarrior, Dune, Starship Troopers, Fahrenheit 451 and Star Wars, bathed in blood, turned up to eleventy billion, set on fire, and catapulted off into space screaming "WAAAGH!" and waving a chainsaw sword- without the happy ending.
