A different prospective and experience. I’ve always had excellent service from Lanier and I’ve been buying their stuff for thirty years. On the other hand I’ve never lost any of the kit parts or plans.
I like their products, and as I stated above, I find their documentation adequate for completing their kits. I've had several Stingers and Shrikes in various sizes and thoroughly enjoyed them. That being said, some folks buy assembled models secondhand and need access to documentation for reference. Others, being potential customers, might want to study the manuals prior to purchase.
Do I feel Lanier has an obligation to provide these free of cost? Not necesarily, especially if there are printing and mailing costs. However, the .PDF files are inexpensive to distribute and most importantly, the competition does it, so the expectation is there, at least for inexpensive "electronic documentation". I don't think anyone would be complaining if they were paying for mailed "hard copies" of the manual.