Rolls was sold to BMW...Bentley to Volkswagen....Alfa Romeo to Fiat...
Point is the world changes. Josef Schrumpeter described the energy of a capitalist system and for the first time in the 1930's defined the driving role of profit motive in innovation...something he called "creative destruction" where the invention of today sows the seeds of it being supplanted tomorrow.
One can always buy historic guns and be content. But you can't pretend that the 1946 Chevy my stepfather drove from Alabama out to California in 1947 was in any way comparable to the cars of today technology wise (except in the sheer tank-like iron it was made out of.)
Guns are a bit different. I love my few turn of the 19th century SxS's and for me they are art (and I'm not a collector). Ya'll know I'm giving my Dau-in-law that 1906 16 ga Gerest-Bertron French SxS. but if you were to buy a gun today on a minimum salary....you'd have to go with something with multiple chokes.
Gene, some of us are throwbacks and are fine with the handicap that may entail.
Truth is, if I could only have one gun and my financial situation insisted that it be relatively modest in cost.....it would be a Fox SW in 16 gauge. Reasonably open chokes and adjust my hunting, not my gun.
