Another comment from a local dealer: they used to have machines for the
hobby and beginner markets but had too many young guys starting out
coming in all the time wanting big discounts on those small/cheap machines
because they didn't have any money. So it wasn't worth the time/effort.

Since the margins are small, you have to sell a lot, which means you need
web sales, and then you're competing with many established players in the
same market. Competing on price is a bad spiral, so it would be better to
find some unique selling point.

Tooling is an issue. Before Ebay, I would simply let people fill up a bucket when they were buying some machine, it was never worth screwing with, Now with ebay it is practical to sell and make something on, less so now than a few years ago.