Hi Rocco,
It's down to simple ECONOMICS. Economics is the science of the allocation of scarce resources.
If Lionel, MTH, American Models are not allocating major resources to S, dividing the small amount of dollars that is alocated will only lessen the amount of dollars available for FlyerChief, Legacy and new engines. That is as simple as I can make it. There is no doubt some small market for Thomas in S, but not enough to drive the hobby.
A nice FlyerChief/Legacy Hudson would bring people in from HO and O as would a new Pacific, Mountain, Northern, F3, F7, and on and on and on. S is STARVING for new good engines and would grow, if they were produced. My prime example is the Berkshires - they sold out the first run in less than a month. I purchased a Polar Berk set and liked it so much I went back for another separate Berk, but they were sold out everywhere.
You can like anything you want, but the majority (small as S may be) want real, new engines - steam, diesel, turbo or whatever. Give people what they want and they will buy - expanding the S market - back to simple economics.
