A serious competitor is no different than a serious sport pilot. Well, I think on second thought that the only difference is that he competes at contests while the sport pilot doesn't compete per se. That doesn't make him less serious about his flying and the equipment surrounding his activity. He strives to learn as much as he can about all aspects of his hobby to make his experience better.

The serious competitor tries to control every aspect of his task, to learn as much as he can, leaving nothing to chance. If something can go wrong, Murphy guarantees that it will go wrong on contest day.

The reverse is also true that there are competitors who are not as serious about it just as there are sport pilots. Because the number differential is so vastly different between sport vs comp it seems that no sport pilot cares enough about his hobby to be on top of all aspects of it. That of course is false.

Conversely it takes so much energy, knowledge and discipline to be competitive that only the most driven stay competitors for more than a few contests. Staying competitive for years can be an all consuming endeavor for most of us.

It is rare to find a competitively priced, nicely done, world class engine, that has exceptional support, and is made where it gets consumed. Any one of these aspects could justify the higher price to someone.
If DA disappeared tomorrow, the existing engines would still bring more than a new DLE.

Matt, you do make some good points. I however do not see the average sport pilot spending the same amout of time and effort tuning his engine or trimming their airplanes. We see guys all the time on these forums referring to using electric starters on gassers that are known to be easily started by hand. The claim is difficult starting so the owner resorts to a starter rather then dig a little deeper and find the actual issue. You and I know that if you go to any IMAC contest you will virtually never see a starter used. I only say virtually simply because I am only 99% comfortable saying never. The same holds true for trimming. Most sport pilots set the CG to the instructions, trim the airplane to fly straight at one speed and call it good. We see threads all the time where an airplane lands too fast, won't knife edge ect. You and I know how to fix these but most don't. Brings me back to my point. As long as the end user is happy and his expectations are met then it's all good.

Exactly my point Shawn. The average sport pilot is no different than the average competitor. Neither spends the time and effort to get the most out of their stuff. The average competitor has the choice of either getting serious or dropping out. Many opt the latter. The few that choose the former often stay for a lifetime,, myself included.

not certain what this turn in the thread Has to do with DA pricing strategy. I suppose it's related. Where the serious modeler might choose the DA, the average often will be swayed by the serious. That doesn't mean that the DLE performs worse, far from it. If either engine lasts 1000 flights or seven years, neither engine owes you anything. My DLE 55 is entering its sixth season while my OSs are entering their fourth and fifth. My older OS just had its first serious problm which was easy enough to fix .