A level by itself is like $6, maybe they save time by not machining a space for it.
I doubt that will lower the price much, maybe if they cut it out completely, but they have their own ideas what to do, far from me to tell them. I made the suggestion, after that, the ball is in their court. People love their levels.
ya the plate was adjustable because they found most of the products they bought to test were not to the RRS Standard, the industry is just all over the place. The fact they are buying stuff, and checking, I think they opted to stay in the middle.
I would rather everyone in this industry use the RRS standard, but since it didn't start that way, not much we can do.