> Look at say rings where personal skill plays a larger role than the advancements in technology. What about advancements metallurgy? And to use an adjacent ex

> Look at say rings where personal skill plays a larger role than the advancements in technology. What about advancements metallurgy? And to use an adjacent example, cold-pressed steel techniques increase the number of places steel can be used. (See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold-formed_steel#Hot-rolled_versus_cold-rolled_steel_and_the_influence_of_annealing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold-formed_steel#Hot-rolled_v...). More often that not, technology enables trade-offs to be made that couldn't be before. Making something cheaper and more fragile does lose something, service life, and so on. In exchange the cheaper thing is now used more widely. Perhaps this more widespread use unlocks something that only a few expensive yet high-quality units could not. Think of smartphones and the resulting network effects.