"Magpul could have saved themselves some design time if they'd have just made the CTR buttpad pull off and have a QD swivel underneath."
Edge of my lane at best:
While that may be true, Magpul has had very few missteps with their polymer molded products in terms of design and proof of concept. Ergo a more blank sheet of paper approach IMHO.
While there may have teething pains with some of their first Glock mags, they more than made those right.
They have held prices down when the market would easily bear higher.
I would argue that their only misses have been trying to support too many smart phones brands with some of their early cases and some of their soft goods (collared shirts, pants, shorts, outwear) missed the mark in the perceived quality/value market.
On a near complete tangent, expanding soft goods beyond a core ( hats/t-shirts in the case of Magpul) is how Golite crashed and burned only to be resurrected as My Trail where the original Go-Lite founder crashed and burned it again. 3rd time may be a charm as a new ownership has the name and designs now.