As an undergrad, a group of my classmates and I had to come up a phantom for micro-CT scanning. Our client for the project wanted channels a micron small and in order to do that there would require a large sum of money that we did not have access to so we created one with larger channels that was not quite what he wanted but fulfilled the main requirements in the project. Companies work in a similar fashion in that the cost to make and research a device is a deciding factor on whether to go through with it. If there is the belief that they could make a large sum back then they will go through with it but for more questionable products it might be on the part of the product team to convince the company on the usefulness of the product