Originally posted by thibs I've been almost shot here for asking for such a cam.
That being said, they'll release a flagship first but nothing prevents them to release a prosumer 24MP FF 6 to 9 months later
The problem is the expectation that leaving away features reduces the price. Dropping the HDMI port... a few cents less perhaps? No headphone out and mic in, couple more cents? Physical items are what can reduce the price. Dropping AF would save them a bit of money, but people will then say "no AF? I was hoping it would at least have AF...". Lower sales = higher prices.
Off the shelf parts help them save money. For example Samsung is using the same sensor and (probably) processor that is found in the NX1 for the NX500. It's quite possibly the most advanced imaging processor in the world, and more than overkill for the NX500 (they don't make use of all the functionality and of the speed it has). But designing a new processor may increase the cost of the camera. Now yes, camera processors are more modular nowadays, so they could for example leave away the HEVC encoder if it didn't have to have video. But Samsung designs and produces everything itself, if Pentax were to do that they have to ask Fujitsu to do it and produce custom parts for them. And the kind of functionality you'd want them to drop won't save any money.
If Pentax really made such a stripped down camera, expect it to have all the functionality simply disabled. Think Nikon Df... it is perfectly capable of recording video, they just disabled the functionality. Enabling it wouldn't cost them a single cent.
The only reason why such a camera would be cheaper is because they can't ask as much for it, and they limited it to force people to spend more on the next step up model. (Think the Canon 1000D series... they artificially limited the speed of the camera. Or all Canon point & shoots use the same processors you'd also find in their DSLRs, and they support raw etc., but it's not activated). Also, retro styling is a reason to increase the price. Would you spend more on a camera that is like what you ask for? Limited production runs, custom hardware (or the same hardware, with some features disabled), ...? Or do you only want that because you think you can save money with it?
Think about the 645Z. It supports video. It doesn't make sense that it does, because the video it produces is a joke. But it does. Because Pentax was simply using the processor from the K-3, which supports video. And the sensor is able to output a video feed for live view. Implementing video was thus trivial.