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Ah—like how if you glanced at caster-equipped fridge drawers, you might think they add $1,000 to the price of a fridge, because only higher-end ones have them, but if they were (for some reason) legally mandated they’d only add like $5-$10 to low-end refrigerators. But, without the mandate, no option for a $400 fridge with nice drawers.

Maybe not that extreme, but similar dynamic.

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Appliances are made in groups of 3 - the stripper, the luxury, and the one medium.

1. stripper - gets people into the showroom because of the low price

2. luxury - for the people who are not price sensitive and just want the best. This generates a lot of profit with little added cost to manufacture

3. medium - people see the stripper and upgrade to the medium, but aren't interested in the luxury price. This is where the bulk of the sales and profits come from

This is called "bracketing" and you'll see it all over the place. Airline seats, for example.

Curious, what’s the origin of the term stripper here?

I don't know the origin, but it means "stripped of everything but the base functionality".

Base model cars with no options are also called "stripper cars". Collector cars that are "fully loaded" with all the options fetch a much higher price.

strip away the features that aren't 100% necessary

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