I don’t think the intent was directly to embarrass anyone, but the standoffs and loosely stacked pcbs really did seem unfortunate. It was dropped, Mark repaired it and it was quite likely just as good as new minus the enclosure damage.

Audio equipment definitely has this issue of extreme pricing for questionable things. In all likelihood the amp on a chip is the best designed amp for the money. Sure discrete stuff might have a better noise floor and reduced noise. I’d argue few people could tell the difference.