As a long standing Pentaxian, it saddens me to say that I don't see myself driving to (or clicking on) a shop and buying a brand new Pentax body at full retail price. Driving to a shop that stocks Pentax is a real challenge. There are only two "near" me and both of them are an hour's drive away. They might not even have the KP or K1 of my dreams in stock. The price of that KP or K1 is eye watering. Sales here in South Africa are not big, even for Nikon and Canon. Pentax sales are tiny, so there are no incentive to discount. The bottom line is that for the price of a KP - about ZAR20,000) I can get a nice twin lens EOD 77D kit. Or a Fujifilm starter pack. Or I can go mirrorless with an EOS RP with included EF adapter. Adapter for my K and M42 mount glass are available for all these choices.
How about a K70? You may ask. Yes it is
cheaper more affordable than the KP, but the ghost of aperture block failure haunts me and I don't want one. I will not dwell on focus motor failure in lenses at this point, since I am not in the market for any new glass.
The one thought that saddens me is that a new KP is simply unaffordable for me. The amount of photography that I do means that I cannot justify the asking price. Something like and an EOS 2000D is what I need, but there is no Pentax in that corner of the market. The EOS M line of mirrorless cameras also look very tempting. The 1.6x crop factor on Canon APS-C bodies remain a bit of a deal breaker for me, though. Nikon is not really an option, since I cannot get a K mount adapter for them.
For the moment I will enjoy the two Pentaxes I already have. Perhaps a used K5 or K3 in the near future, who knows?
All of this is rather saddening. The most depressing is that we are now in the second quarter of the Pentax centenary and almost nothing has been released so far...