[calmbonsai]

Take a look at older designs from the '60s and all the Experimental aircraft.

It's not that the industry doesn't know or can't do "sexy" (e.g. Cirrus custom leather and carbon fiber interiors and paint colors such Mykonos Blue), but that anything related to the airframe, avionics, or powerplant MUST be FAA certified so that exponentially (I'm not kidding) adds to its cost and time-to-market.

With such high fixed costs and high liability, manufacturers are forced be very conservative to earn very slim margins.