First of all its only my personal opinion
We don't see them in tv at all, maybe in some interviews you get that people on screen as a person. We do see their work on tv. Nobody cares about any individual photographer and what gear he or she uses in wilderness or at the games. Maybe a little more on wedding tv shows etc. And even if someone cares, there are rare cases.
How often do you see a family man in camera shop, who just want to take pretty shots of his growing up kids, or a teenager who want to take pictures of his friends, pets, or anything and don't care about RAW postproces and stuff? That is ~95% of buyers. This is the client base for every camera company.
What they ask? Quick and intuitive camera. With kit lens or two kit lenses. Then some of them come back and ask for reasonably fast and silent auto focus, affordable prime lens. Mostly 50/1.8 or something in that type. And that is their last visit and purchase for years. Maybe some will get a flashgun later on.
If they want to get prints on their own-they may also buy some cheap photo printer like canon selphy for their own use, or Instax Camera.
I do see a reason for doing high grade lenses, and specialized lenses(and I will definitely get new 50), but they are not the trade horses for companies to build their rank on.
Pentax current lineup lacks a thing that everybody in the market had long time ago, and typical buyers want to have it- silent af driven lenses. Ricoh will not get money from legacy lenses or more cash from screw drive old designs. They have to sell new, modern stuff.
Canon and Nikon got mostly into "big PRO's" hands in 80's, why? Because they ware giving them good deals individually, or for their companies(AP, Reuters etc) on their own marketing plan. Not because all of the pros just ran for new Canon and Nikon stuff and got them right of shelves. And when that happened, Pentax who had at that time way over half of the share in the market, just missed that opportunity and did nothing to lure them.