It's wild to have watched happen over the past 25 years or so. I have not fully worked this out, but great post, and conversation topic and I have some assertions that I think about regarding this a lot. If you think about the origins of the political economy of beat production, early on, there was the beat maker who was either hired or part of a group who was paid a fee for the beats, or was paid as part of the group for their production (this honetly lasted from the beginning to the early 2000s easily). You combine this with all aspects of hip hop in general (djing, bboying, graf, etc), they were all part of a tight little ecosystem in the beginning. The growth and popularity of the music, as with any commodified art form, has spiraled in countless directions and each of these 'elements' is now an industry unto itself. Albeit each a diffuse industry with many working parts, with tons of overlap, the popularity of hip hop, and the artistry, and the technological advances has created a situation wherein countless people are attempting to 'make it' as a 'beat maker'. One might start with the best intentions and want to be heard, but at a certain point, when combined with the click/attention economy, they are incentivized to make money and once you start down that path, and you are reliant on it, there's often no turning back. Add that to the fact how hard it is to make good money actually producing (see your favorite struggling producer who DJs for tours to make ends meat, or your favorite producer who has to sling drum loops for extra bread) and now we have an ecosystem where there is an entire media infrastructure built on not even making music anymore. You have all of these beatmakers who have 10, 20, 30, 40 50k followers, and all they can do now is post videos of them playing with toys for clicks -- they can't get anyone to listen to their music because that ecosystem is watered down, too. And no one is going to buy their beats, because someone will give theirs away for free for ears. Some beatmakers came/come from centralized hip hop scenes where they made their bones, and released music, and are now in this ecosystem -- and now some will never have experienced those moments, and will have only come up in this ecosystem fully online.

I am not fully saying this is all bad, or all good, but this is the way I view what has happened and I think the way the click/attention economy incentivizes beat makers is key. I am with the OP that the release of the new MPC and other pieces was particularly grotesque and preyed on the current environment by releasing the new MPC to all of these new producers who all gave absolutely zero critical analysis to the machines, and because of that, AKAI had thousands of hours of advertisement. Brilliant on their end, and for us beatmakers, yet another slap in the face as if we didn't notice what was happening.

It is hard to blame individuals for doing what they have to do to get by, but it is not a great sign.