2M Black / AT440MLa / MP500 setting and comparison

Ortofon, AT and Nagoaka all make fine modern MMS these days.  Arguably the technology hasn't moved on in the last couple of decades but I'm sure the build quality has, so the product, whichever flavour you prefer will be more consistent.

Judging by the UK hifi press you'd think ortofon had left the others behind but I think that's marketing dollars speaking.  It's interesting that most on this forum prefer the bronze (ml stylus) to the black (Shibata stylus.). If you like the bigger dynamics and soundstage  of a Shibata stylus, then it seems much more at home in an AT cartridge body than an Ortofon one, even though most seem to think the ml stylus is the sweet spot in the AT range too.

I'm an AT Shibata user and I've never known it misbehave like the Ortofon black can.

I can remember paying £40 for a Gold ring 1042 back in the eighties.

You say niche, but with the popularity of vinyl at it's highest since the 80s to me it says two things, one people are not playing their vinyl or they are happy with the cart they have. Us lot that care about sound quality they get from their turntable are paying the price. Have you noticed that anything to do with vinyl records is expensive. It may be like me we are happy with are cart and just replace the needle.