Sinclair's philosophy was to cut every single cost, even if it was ultimately counter-productive in the long run for the company and the consumers - and industry standards be damned!
Possibly TLDR...
The successor model,
the 48K Plus had an improved keyboard with the space bar situated in the standard position but the keyboard was still membrane based and inferior to those of competing machines. Many third party companies offered kits that would provide your ZX81 or Spectrum with a proper keyboard.
They later released a Spectrum that had a MIDI port - which was very impressive but Sinclair inexplicably chose a non standard port. This meant that you couldn't just go straight ahead and connect your music gear to the computer as you could with the Atari ST. Instead, you'd have to buy an adapter or solder a cable that would give you a true MIDI DIN connector - a mind bogglingly self-defeating act on their part.
Sinclair pitched the 68K based QL as a professional and business orientated machine but bizarrely used
non standard RJ ports for the RS2323 implementation on the UK models, instead of the industry favoured 9pin D connector and still opted for keyboards that were cost effective in terms of pricing but they made the QL unattractive to it's target market. Insane - as was supplying it with their risible tape-loop
Microdrive storage devices instead of a 3.5" FDD and expecting professionals/businesspeople to take it seriously. Cutting costs to the point of illogic and ignoring industry standards helped consign it to failure.
It did take me aback a little but due to my experiences with eBay where I've bought numerous components that arrived laden with dust, I'm increasingly unsurprised by such behaviour. Not too long ago, someone gifted me an Amstrad CPC 464 with a colour monitor (fantastic, considering what they now sell for) and when I went to collect it, both the computer and the monitor were
absolutely filthy. When I saw them, I thought: "For crying out loud, you couldn't have given them a rub down beforehand?" 😫
