Exactly, and to stay solvent they need to protect their margins. If they want to stay in business then they need to sell higher margin products which are not going to be backplate and wings. The traditional dive shop model was that they low-balled the initial training in order to get customers in the shop in order to sell them equipment. Knowing that most divers drop out of the hobby, you want to sell them as much as you can as soon as you can. The name of the game is to maximize profit per diver.
However, the internet upset that model because clients have access to different gear, better information, and better pricing. I don't think dive shops have come up with a suitable replacement model. Especially, shops that are not in a good diving location. Consequently many are going under.
Both Aqualung (through Apeks) and Scubapro do sell BP/W (at around the price point as Halcyon). So the industry giants are in that space. As a dive shop, I would not really want to sell BP/W, because I will need to spend significant time setting it up and training the diver. Something DGX or DeepSix does not need to do. Also if the diver isn't happy with his purchase then I am to blame. If he finds out that a BP/W is only $350 from DGX, while the Apeks I sold him is twice that, then I am a crook. It is a no win situation for the dive shop. It is much easier to sell a BC where it is quick to set it up and if the diver looks online, everyone is advertising it at the same price I sold it for.
