They’re some cast metal and a simple valve, made by the thousand,
To play devils advocate…. how many taps do you buy for your house in a lifetime? Although they are a mass market item the customer base its pretty small, I’ve only got 8 taps in my house and they’ve probably been there for at least 20 years. People don’t buy very many and anyone who does buy a tap probably won’t buy another to replace it for a very long time.
Compared to other products thats a pretty small market and and very length product cycle – compared to how many and how often people will buy a pair or shoes or a car.
Standard/ generic taps are pretty cheap, but anything more particular / stylish / fashionable is going to sell in relatively small numbers for the tooling / set up costs. ‘Cast metal’ can involve some pretty big set up costs, especially cast hollow form. I’d imagine theres the a fair bit of labour in finishing and polishing too.
Given they sell in relatively small numbers, manufacturers and retailers still need to make and stock a pretty wide range of designs.
