" and when there isin't then the HDD manufacturers will almost certainly ditch all of their R&D and concentrate on ruthless cost cutting "
Guess what? That has _already_ happened - about 5 years ago.
HAMR and Shingling are the last steps. There's no more R&D for future technology coming down the pipeline. Getting HAMR from the lab to production is taking significantly longer than anticipated
Biting the hand that feeds IT
