WRT the cage concept; I for one, would be interested in it. IDK about "huge cry", but I think a good many in this sport go through actions like underwear. It would be nice to have at least one option on the market that had the cage concept.
All that being said, I think I'd have to sit down and look at a business model of some sort on how that would be profitable for a company, and still appealing (cost point wise) to enough of the market to cover NRE and still make a decent profit margin. I have a few ideas, but I haven't really sat down and crunched the numbers TBH. In my mind, it would have to be a entirely modular chassis as well (fore end, stock, grip, side panels, bridge, etc.) to sell the concept of a cage, so that a user could literally design it to fit their needs, as well as modify it over time. Think the whole Mini Cooper marketing concept ("Over 10,000 combinations, with no Mini the same") of personalizing the item, while having some baseline commonality across the line of products.
At any rate, I'm just rambling now. I do appreciate you chiming into the discussion, it really is one of the great things about this place.
~MPMI