Re: What is needed in the tactical market.
Regarding a package rifle vs a custom ordering system, recent advances in 'just in time inventory' types of production philosophies work Ok for a throwaway market, but where systems are designed to be maintainable, I think they may not be such a wonderful idea, because they can make customer support into a nightmare. The automobile industry deals with this by encoding features into the VIN, but honestly, I would sincerely hope the firearms industry does not reach this degree of complexity.
My idea of variety is a package rifle complete in all respects, and a base rifle, sans mounts and optics, in a box without ancillary objects, and leave the entire product selection question at that. Two choices, no more.
While I am a personal fan of switch barrel rifles, that does not extend to chambering options that allow different case head diameters. I think that the recent trend to more voluminous chamberings has a place, but I believe that an action long enough to accomodate a .30-'06, and a bolt face with a .473" diameter should be adequate for most practical applications, and that larger chamberings require a completely different platform in order to be truly practical.
I realize that this is a tough crowd to play to, but my own LR philosophy dictates a considerably longish barrel, and that consideration of practical overall length would dictate some sort of truncation, ala bullpup, to make this workable in a field rifle.
Dropping the boreline, extending the cheekrest forward, and remounting the optics forward, could soften the blow to conventionality.
It might even make some sense to reconfigure the bedding concept to involve an integrated barrel block and scope mounting, with the action floating, or at least only being secured with a flexible contact. Perhaps something which combines everything to a recoil lug that incorporates the bedding foundation and scope mount.
Greg