This thing with Gibson doesn't surprise me, actually. Ever since the 1980s, Gibson's rep around Nashville was that it was where music companies went to die. They had a reputation for gobbling up stumbling music firms and then totally neglecting them as assets. Moog and Oberheim are two firms that I know of offhand, and I know there were several others of note. Thankfully, both firms I mentioned have made it back from Gibson's graveyard out on Elm Hill Pike, but others haven't over quite a few years. They also had a habit under their current CEO of banking on innovations that either didn't work, or weren't desired, such as their continuing belief that their "robot" tuned guitars were what everyone was clamoring for.
It's irritating, yes...but if/when Gibson goes under, perhaps those segments of the company that used to do quality work will regroup under some other name, unfettered by the current firm's chronic mismanagement.
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