Yeah, and I get that.  But here's the cycle:  Someone announces a new figure.  Tons of people are interested.  Let's say the figure has a perfect release and great initial support.  That figure is still one of many.  The stickies get unstickied, the main thread goes silent or becomes unweildy, and there's no good way for vendors to tell anyone about their products any more.  Customers don't really hear about the figure any more.  Vendors find their supporting content sales falling off, even though they're doing everything they can to promote content for that figure.  So they stop supporting that figure and go back to the same old.  Months later, someone posts, "Whatever happened to (fill in the blank)?"  People come up with all kinds of quality issues and things done wrong, when in point of fact, every figure has short-comings and no one's ever going to be able to make a perfect figure.  Certainly not someone who's never made a figure for the content community before.  There's a big difference between making a regular product and making a platform for future development.  But the biggest problem is that vendors want money and freebie makers want downloads and maybe some recognition, and none of them are getting any of that because no one knows about their work.

When new figures get a pass, but their supporting content doesn't, there's heavy disincentives to supporting the figure once the initial "pass" is expired.  For that matter, the same is true of any non-standard content.   Whether it's a new figure, new technology, or just a style of content people don't ordinarily buy, you have all the disadvantages of going outside the mainstream without any of the ways to reach people complaining that there's nothing beyond the mainstream.  Or, just as importantly, to entice people who haven't looked outside the mainstream.