Steve, I would be very surprised if most folks here in the US can accommodate these speakers. The room we heard them in was apparently 19 x 25 x10. Wendell did tell me that the 30.7 could work in a room as small as 15' wide, but I suspect that would be pushing it.
As to value, well I agree, that is a personal decision. I think the 30.7's deliver a huge amount of SQ for the $$. That is where the value lies. I do not think, like I said, that they are particularly well built...quality wise. I don't quite agree with you on the Linn table of yore, it always had a very costly to manufacture platter and bearing system. The two-piece platter ( inner and outer) was machined to a very close tolerance ( not that cheap to do), plus the plinth was a real wood plinth that I know cost the company in excess of 100 pounds each! ( Yes, even back in the day!) Nothing in the new Maggie strikes me as that expensive to manufacture. If we look at some of the competing products, from the likes of Wilson and Magico ( their low end models, LOL) or even YG ( their lower end models) I don't see their cost to manufacture the boxes and drivers as being anywhere near as low as these Maggies. ( I could be proven wrong here, but that's just my overall impression)
Your point about the SAT tonearm is well taken. OTOH, it brings up the question of whether that product makes any sense to bring to market, IMO. If you have such a restricted market for your product due to complexity and cost, and as such you have to bring your product to market with an enormous price ( one that will rule out 99% of possible consumers!) and to add to that you cannot make enough profit to make it that effective from a profit stand point, is it worthwhile to do the endeavor regardless? That's a question that Marc Gomez has apparently asked himself and answered. I'm not so sure that many others would have come to the same conclusion. Instead, they may have tried to bring to market a more widely appealing product that could be marketed at a far lower price, thereby insuring far more sales and a more lucrative end result. OTOH, I do see that Marc is trying to bring to market a lower priced arm that has much of the tech distilled into it ( and possibly sounds even better!)-- that makes a lot of sense IMHO.