I'm afraid the people who buy Rics (Beatles, Jam, and all Mods in general) are not going to stop buying them - they are 60s Icons.
People that play 5/6 string basses with bodies that look like an explosion in Ikea, were never going to buy Rickenbackers in the first place.
JH is a man that wants to keep hold of his families design anyway he can. The guitars come out of a little factory, like they have done for about 60 years;
He will never make budget guitars, he will never change the design to suit the modern player and he takes pride in what he does.
Put yourself in his shoes.
(obviously I have extreme bias, but we all have different opinions; that's the way the world works.)