I think a lot of the footprint also has to do with shipping issues. The metal Ultimaker clones are great, but they are huge, heavy and a total nightmare to ship. Smaller printers put things in the realm of "desktop gadget" instead of "machine tool".

I just think it's crazy how many companies are trying to make it in the 3D printing industry, creating printers that are pretty much identical to what is already out there.
That's generally the strategy here. Try to build things that are as similar as possible to known popular products but with minor incremental improvements. Like an evolutionary process with a very, very low mutation rate that is still a viable means to progress because it occurs on such a vast scale.