The action is the cheapest part of a rifle you will buy. Everything will be switched out a couple times, maybe even triggers. With that being said, I would not be surprised if defiance is not arround in 3 years.
They were already on the decline. Despite growing the business, they were losing market share. 5+ years ago they owned the tactical and PRS market. Today, they have Impact, Lone Peak, Zermat and Terminus all eating their share. In their heyday the really only had to compete with Bighorn/zermat, Stiller doing its death throes and some small shops like Bat/borden/kelby.
Now the brains behind the company sell out to a "media personality"/gun conglomerate. We saw something similar happen with Surgeon and after Tate left, what did they become? They haven't come out with a new product in like 10 years and they are now irrelevant, when they owned the tactical and prs market back in the day.
Add the price hike and its a clear money grab. Now I don't know if the long wait times are due to production chokeholds or actual insane demand, but I would expect people cancelling their orders and pivoting to a Better, Cheaper and Faster to get product. GAP is already building a ton of guns on non Definace actions, which the templar and gladius is.
Definace really fucked up by being late to the prefit game. Surgeons from 10+ years ago were built accrate enough to use prefits before they were even a thing in this market. It was what? like 2 years ago they finally came out with the Tenacity and Ruckus that can use prefits? Little late to the party. I don't know why anyone who is shopping for a new action would not go with Impact, Lone peak or terminus. Much better designed actions, more reliable, cheaper and much easier to get.
This pattern is predictable. That is why we called out their demise as soon as they announced the sale. Who is going to continue to invoate the product? Who is going to ensure quality does not suffer because its their baby? The new owners need an ROI and they aren't going to get it by giving everyone a great value.
Its a shame too, the tencacity was IMO the best of the budget actions. Now they are more expensive than all the competitors premium actions....