Guess its a law of averages...if we sold 200 bats a year 2 of them might come out looking like the legend examples you posted. If your making 40,000 bats a year 400 might turn out to be like this.
As mentioned above the boys of here might get lucky and land one which i think they should charge accordingly for in order to cash in on their luck so to speak.
You can't force a tree to produce a cleft with 16+ perfectly straight grains as its a natural product that has its own agenda....therefore when a true beauty does come along a limited edition is obviously an attractive option to maximise profits as the raw willow wont have cost any extra or the bat making process.
Plus of course all that assumes everyone is on the straight and narrow, that everyone gets the same mix of quality, that the super stuff isn't cherry picked. I have no proof for it, of course, but hell, if I could sell a cleft for double the normal, I'd be motivated to look for them.
Good point about nature too. This year there could be none, as I said earlier, nature doesn't do straight lines and sub millimetre perfect spacings...