I bought the Duo on Day 1 of its’ release. We know nothing can come even closer to this work-horse for its’ simplicity, workflow, retention, performance, durability and the price bracket. You take any of this away including the price, it’s a different take.
They have spent, I think, 1.5-2.0 years on the table, before releasing it. They are a successful business, and those who helped / worked hard to create that brand have decades of experience in this industry. I am sure they have strong reasons why they went down this path. Most of them will always remain out of public consumption.
It is easy to make a statement from the other side that they made a mistake, created a duplicate grinder that they shouldn’t have, they could have done XYZ, and so on. I can understand the disappointment that the espresso burrs don’t appear different to the zero. Some users think it is different and they like the difference it brings. It is all relative.
It is like some thinking the Zero is fine for filter and the other thinking otherwise. I ignore those comments unless it comes from someone like MWJB, who is our resident brew expert. He makes a great filter with the zero and he prefers lighter roasts. :-)
The majority do not have the luxury of buying gears like us, let alone buy two grinders.
I am not an engineer to explain why different burrs may require different optimisation of the motor performance. Dave is the right person to explain this to us.
I wouldn’t comment on their business decision as neither I have an inside knowledge nor it is right.
The bottomline is if we don’t like it, we don’t have to buy it. 😊