And a fair amount of that upper income bracket wants something that the regular guys like you and me can't afford....
Hence the Continuum.
When we had it here, we had identical Dynavector XV-1s carts on the Continuum and a Rega P9, the Raven Two and an SME20/2. Everything else in the system was identical and we even had duplicate pressings from MoFi that were only one stamper number apart.
The P9 offered up about 75% of the sound of the Continuum, which was amazing, considering the table and arm are only $4995. The Raven Two with SME iV.Vi was very close but not quite, either way, not $43 thousand better and the SME 20/2 with an SME iV.Vi was virtually identical.
So for 12-17 thousand if all you want is the sound quality, the Continuum is a waste of money. But, if you want the cool factor that you won't see everywhere and money is no object, there you go.
It's the same reason people buy a Bentley instead of a Mercedes, etc. etc.