Tim nailed it with the industrial/economic situation in Europe for the price increase. Energy prices in Europe have gone through the roof, and that issue compounds at every level of supply chain for raw material, vendor operations, shipping, etc. Inflation of the Euro vs USD has actually blunted that edge a bit, but there's no avoiding it's impact.
The new features added were to continue to improve the platform in a way that tracks with that price increase so the value of the product for the consumer stays in line with the cost. The last thing we or any company wants to do is just pass along an inflationary markup to our customers if we can help it.
The new 1301 forend kits are being targeted to be available on the market before the end of Q1. The trigger groups will be at least a year if not more since thats a bottleneck item.
The Mod. 2 stock is the same as the original 5 shot tube 1301 (which are gen 1 kickoff compatible). When the first 7rd tube 922r approved 1301 came out a couple years back we had to use one of our US made, and non-kickoff compatible, stocks to meet the domestic parts count. That new forend is US made, so we were able to revert to the original stock. Practically speaking, that original stock is actually better due to the LOP, texture, and grip angle; not the kickoff compatibility (but that's harder to explain to the mass market).