I work in Sales and Customers look to be "educated" at no cost to them whilst i'm selling "education" services at £750 per day!!.... its called the "selling dance" in other words a blend of customer experience, value and support, some of which is paid for and some freely given....part of the education from Steptoe is to say i can fix this if required, you the customer pay for that knowledge / service. ( and why not...)
in my opinion guys like Steptoe go the extra mile and offer a great "customer experience"...as do others like Bahnstormer, just at a different price point.... to support Granite Floors, (Concrete at Steptoes) GSA loan bikes, (Black GS1150 at Steptoes) free coffee (No Coffee etc) etc.....in other words you pays your money.....
yes, this is a technical forum and people help each other out.... (As does Steptoe...) but when ideas are ripped off and sold via ebay etc thats taking the pish...