Evolution is a necessary process, and its traceability is paramount.
Engineering should always follow the rules of ISO 9001, even in a small company, otherwise it will be very difficult to handle spare / replacement parts.
Hoping I'm wrong, but for the moment I have the impression, the whole history of development is only kept in the brains of some individuals.
Nah I've seen the official logo and branding file for an example.; that and most everything I have ever seen is extremely well documented. If I ask a question I always get a complete and engineering sound answer. There's just not a full time presence here on the forum. Everyone is busy and Robert's pulled a lot of ways. I usually know the answer; and I'm here online all day so I try and answer, but remember (volunteer) so I don't have access to that data directly; just what I recall (creepy brain to the rescue) and can dig up by remembering who said what and approximately when. Without fail Robert will correct me if I'm wrong. So because I'm fast it probably feels really more unofficial and random than it would otherwise. But if you can stump Robert on a spares question I'll be surprised;I've asked some doozies over the years including the required; "come'on that can't be true" now and then. The "how and why" is always provided.
Now where I'd agree with your recent posts, is that even with a small company it would be good to anticipate the "spacer" question and come up with a solution ahead of time. I personally can easily foresee that people would like an upgrade path if possible and boy I'd want to provide one if it was my decision; but the reality is there a tipping point that you are just too small to execute on those things ahead of time; and our favorite bike company is probably still behind that part of the bell curve.
Now to counter that, demand is the other problem, I'll use the carbon seat from the V20 as an example. When that was announce a ton of people said "I want that" , and it's a stellar upgrade that make the bike more comfortable and 1lb lighter. So Maria and company made it available at the cost it takes at these low volumes. I bought 2 of them as upgrades one for a silvio and 1 for a vendetta. I don't think I've heard one other person say they bought the upgrade. If that's the case I have to think that is considered in what upgrades can be planned for. You can't make a $400 fork upgrade that costs $5000 to design if you only will sell 3 of them. Maybe the seats completely different from the drive train/fork; but you get the point.
In my perfect world the Silvio would come in two interchangeable flavors with and with out shock forks. Perhaps some day we get there; but I do prefer the shock-less one, in concept, if there can be only 1 model.