Yet again, I'll bite... the current system is in favour of the savvy consumer, not against.
It takes a huge amount of time (and money) to become a 'savvy consumer'. This is not a car that you can test drive at a dealership.
Lets think bigger for a change and imagine a world where all bats are standardized so that consumers don't have to spend years becoming a "savvy consumer". In those circumstances, your time would be spent improving your skill and enjoying other things rather than buying, waiting, oiling, knocking a piece of willow. It'd be nice if the sport and its followers joined the 21st. century.
Imagine all bats are somehow assessed accurately for rebound and graded accordingly - the best performing bats will be wildly expensive and if you want one, you've got no alternative but to stump up.
False premise. There is no shortage of G2/G3/G4 willow. If all of it was pressed correctly and fitted with basic good quality handles (without fillers and junk), we'd have a market full of G2/G3/G4s that will be priced pretty uniformly. I have yet to see a baseball bat that is graded as "ultra-light, low density, G1+++ PLAYER GRADE " bull sh**. Not once. Baseballers focus on their skills, play time, and other good things. Serbian, Kashmir willow would make market even more competitive. The day bats are standardized, price will be become normal (read: cheap and not the bs prices we pay thanks to JS Wright's monopoly)
Currently, they're priced on looks. Fools are gladly parted with their money at M&H etc, sensible CBF'ers seek out grade 3 cannons at bargain prices. Everyone has an opportunity to own a great bat[/u], how terrible!
Sad thing is that a bat buyer doesn't always end up with a "great bat" because you really don't know what you are getting until you hit balls with that bat. Bat buying process lacks standardization. It is a crap shoot.