I am sorry, but trying to frame an arguments as something rational based on purely subjective criteria does not really work for me. Especially when you don't really present the world as it is. There were/are many MF cameras that were not waist level--SLRs, rangefinders, viewfinders, and view cameras. I am all for different camera types having used Mamiya 6s, Horseman SW612, Widelux F8, Wista technical cameras, TLRs, and a host of stuff, but they need to be economically viable. Many waist-level cameras had a prism to make them eye level. Perhaps no one really wants waist level cameras anymore than when film was around.
Thank you, but I don't want more than 40MP.
As far as the options go, you simply don't need to use them. You can setup any modern camera to work just like a Pentax Spotmatic. I also like the idea of customizing my cameras--engineers don't always get the way I like. I can also make so one camera can work like another. Of course, you don't believe the camera should be simple as you also listed requirements for options you want. I certainly don't want a camera needlessly limited to fit some parternaistic idea that "real" photographers don't need this or that. BTW, most of the cameras I have used during my career have been completely manual and I can use them as easily as any automated one so my objection has nothing about not having the skill to use a simple camera, just against an irrational argument for simplification. Besides, an innovation a engineer might have may be useful for my. Camera design is a creative pursuit and I would not want that to stop because someone does not like a button or a menus option they don't use.
Costs have nothing to do with standardization. The M9P is not cheaper than the M9. The M9M is expensive as well. The cameras are basically identical, yet price does not move.
BTW, my Pentax 645D mirror is quiet. Why not buy a 645D? The option is out there, but you need to take it.
What I would like to see is neither here nor there. Manufacturers don't care nor can run a business that way. That is the reality. However, I do like the manufacturers that do take a chance and try to push the envelope. But they will not do it for me.
And how does the saying go? A good craftsman always blames his tools?