My analogy to the custom cue world is the Harley motorcycle industry. Harley riders want a bike that looks, sounds, and feels like the Harley that they have known for years. Many stayed away from fuel injection and other forms of modern electronic accessories. Take the V-Rod model for example. It's certainly the most modern, but also arguably the fastest and most reliable bike in the Harley line-up. It contains MANY advancements in manufacturing and engine technology, yet it's not considered a Harley at all to some purists. In the bike world if you want the latest advancements in technology you go buy a sport bike, not a Harley.
For good or bad, tradition is deeply engrained in that industry, and I see it in cue building and collecting as well. Though there are companies who are breaking from tradition and using high-tech tools, materials, and manufacturing techniques, buyers of custom pool cues tend to gravitate toward traditional designs. In fact, the products from builders who have learned cue making from former well known builders tend to be more valued in the collector community. Another example is the negative feelings that many collectors have about the use of CNC in cue making. Do a search on CNC in the Wanted/For Sale section, and you'll probably find a few 10+ page threads about how using CNC is cheating, or makes cue building too easy, like there is an "easy button" on a CNC mill that you push and a finished cue comes out the side of the machine... Anyway, with only a few exceptions, traditional short-spliced or full-spliced cues tend to be valued above cues with floating points done on a CNC.
Tradition runs deep in this industry, and suppliers supply what their customers demand, or they don't supply for long.
