One aspect of the virtues of one artist building the bike completely or a division of labor where a bike is built by a team or a shop it this: The builder must nearly always be able to get enough money for his product to stay in business or building stops. I think this goes a long way to explain why one can buy a very nice Tommasini or Colnago frame for less than $2000 and to buy a Richard Sachs frame will have to cost you more. One can build more frames with a crew and probably the students of the master framebuilder are not earning as much while perfecting their craft. Of course, no master builder who is wise would let items out of his shop that did not meet a quality level that was approved of. Yes, I'm sure this does happen, but it must not be the rule, if one is to maintain a reputation for quality. I'd love a Richard Sachs bike. Someday I hope to own one. Right now I have several bikes, all except one are team efforts, I'm sure. I love them all. There's a lot to be said for being able to afford a nice bike!
Thank the Lord there both kinds of bikes available to us.
Just my humble opinion,
Tom Sanders
Lansing, mi