I'm of course no more privy to their internal knowledge than you are, but it's hard to see how this will help the situation. The segment of the market that can'

I'm of course no more privy to their internal knowledge than you are, but it's hard to see how this will help the situation. The segment of the market that can't afford or can't justify Prusa's prices is not going to go upmarket because of a lack of clones. There are already a ton of cheap 3D printers on the market which on paper sound as good or better than Prusa's products. Reviewers are by and large numb to setup and support pain, and tend to discount those factors when talking about budget printers. Consumers go to Prusa because of their reputation. So whether or not there are exact Prusa clones seems pretty irrelevant, because the information a buyer needs to learn to understand Prusa's value will apply whether the clones are there or not.