I still struggle to see what technology actually means within cycling. The CAD behind the hyperglide cassette is an obvious one but the rest is very basic engineering and mechanics.
The slightly twisted teeth of old Sachs and Uniglide cassettes / freewheels work really well with a chamfered chain and index well.
Di2 is definitely tech though, proper tech. It has the sort of shifting that is like those walking robots that get pushed over and creepily get up again, you can't make Di2 do something wrong. I feel very much like I'm some sort of steampunk engineer when sliding gear cables through. There should be polished brass involved with mechanical gear sets!
Back to the boring, tech is definitely in the process of churning out identical frames and components all to an acceptable standard whilst maintaining an air of hierarchy. But still all paired down to extract as much profit as possible
As mentioned many times before, cycling as a business is shite, not when a product can last half a century with the minimum of servicing - who'd want to invest in that as businesse model?
Looking back at at a century of advertising, the amount of 'stuff' the cycling enthusiast could buy. Some of it looking very familiar as old ideas are revisited.
So, the marketing is where the clever people sit. Who cares if some dry engineer comes up with a brilliant long lasting product, where's the profit in that? How can investors get a return if Product X is so good? It's back to the drawing board figuratively and literally to come up with something that generates guaranteed income. By playing on insecurities, income is generated for a product we don't really need but if don't have the right one, you, sir, are a loser.