Alternately, it lets you buy good quality bicycles with some major mechanical issues on Craigslist or the like, fix them yourself, and flip them for a nice profit. After, of course, extensive test riding for a few weeks (or months, if it's really nice - wouldn't want to let a problem slip past!) to make sure everything is working properly.
Bikes are so simple. Even fancy ones. Though I'll draw the "absurd" line somewhere before shift-by-wire systems to save a few grams.