The non-Ms are beautifully made and worth every penny (eg Q2, SL) but the Ms are beautifully made terrible technology - specifically the rangefinder: they’re delicate, need frequent servicing and can only focus down to 0.7m, so the advent of live view finally allows lenses that go closer than 0.7m to be focused. That said, I just bought a Canon 7D from 2009 and it too is beautifully made.

However, I think the digital signing is a good way to provide the photographer with proof that the picture in the paper/competition is the picture that they made with the camera and not their pal Midjourney.

Why they put it in such a sluggish contraption, I don’t know, but probably a good place to start compared to a Z9 and trying to tag pictures at 500 frames a second or whatever.

Yeah this isn't something to get outraged over. The arguably "entry level" leica is over $6k. They're expensive but well made cameras that are hand built in Germany. If you're buying one you probably know what you're getting or you have more money than you know what to do with. If you think they're expensive, there's awesome options from fujifilm, Canon, nikon, and Sony that cost less.