I've got testing with smaller gauge wires. I'm using 16 awg to 10 awg, I run it bare without sleeving to test the base construction. Been running it for several months to test base design.
No issues running smaller than my final product with solder shrink rather than step down crimps. I use all raychem or shrink flex shrink, US made Kable Kontrol PET or Insultherm Techflex, or on the CGK techflex trufit.
No ebay special materials. OEM spec GXL, TXL wire. Molex or raychem crimps and quality sleeves.
Yeah for sure, I didn't intend to suggest you were using anything low quality for your harness. It looks great! If I was to buy a car that used spark plugs (heaven forbid) I would be interested.
I'm not even going to entertain the logic that a bigger company's products should cost more because they have more overhead. I personally don't want to pay for any part of EQT's marketing budget, or Dave's salary, etc. I can understand passing R&D costs.. But the other stuff is a little crazy. They should be selling more product to cover that stuff. The fact that you're going to buy storable's cables (bravo) means the market doesn't agree what they are doing is right.
As to EQT's overhead, marketing, specific individual's salaries, etc... those
are costs the company has. Whether you want to pay for them or not doesn't mean that cost no longer exists. That's the beauty of choices, like StorableComa's harness. If EQT is selling some of these then there is a market. If that market is small the price will stay subjectively high (even if the high price is the actual cost of the small market). If the market is big then why would they lower prices? Small businesses have the choice to charge something closer to actual material cost while also better benefitting the individual(s) that run the business, which is awesome. I'm not saying a bigger company's products
should be priced higher, only that often the price
is higher until economies of scale kick in, as mentioned by
@StorableComa. Similar costs don't mean similar price.
As someone who orders tens of thousands of feet of wire every year (and the other materials for installs... zip ties, splices, pins, sockets, connectors sleeving, etc.) I'm always trying to buy in bulk. But I also know I will sell installs that use 18, 20, 22 awg wiring so I practically never buy a roll of under 1,000 feet which keeps my cost down. That wire is billed based on my bulk price even if I only need 25 feet for a project/repair. But if I need something odd, like 14 awg single shielded wire for example, that is billed accordingly at a higher price even if I am able to get some sort of bulk discount. It costs the company money to buy and maintain inventory of wire that we may not use very often. Please believe that cost is passed on to the customer. And if the wire is even less common, like 18 awg triple twisted shielded be prepared to pay top dollar

.