This seems to be one of those curious cases where (at least in Europe and North America!) almost everyone either owns an electric shaver or buys expensive multi-blade cartridges, and has done so for decades. But over time the value added by those cartridges — safety from children's fingers? Certainly not a closer shave — was nullified and actually made negative by their cost. Meanwhile I shave for €5 a year with safety razors.
Is the marketing of cartridges such a strong agent here that the seemingly superior solution is largely ignored? Or am I not seeing the appeal of a Gillette nine-blade turbo-smooth aloë-vera-coated hyper-cartridge?
I sometimes wonder if this phenomenon is limited to the West, and that the rest of the world happily shaves with cheap safety blades or straight edge razors.
Maintenance can be cut down a sub-minute per use by ignoring the folklore and cutting a few corners (I use a stone once a month for a few seconds (not considered normal) and only strop half a dozen times before each use).