Bugatti loses money on every Veyron sold despite the car selling for $1M a copy.
But Volkswagen gains far more than they loose in having a platform for design innovation and technology, not to mention the advertising and promotional benefits of making Bugatti's that rub off on the VW group overall. And I think the 'losing money' quote was a relative term anyway, perhaps in the beginning they did, but I think it was something put about to calm the surprise and anguish caused by the initial price tag. They are now more like 1.6 million Pounds, not dollars, and sell like hot cakes.
Anyway, the MATE. I had the 49mm version and while it was a nice lens and did everything very well I felt it had no 'spark', that ingredient that makes you want a Leica lens over any other. Sometimes it was the slow speed that made things feel flat, but in actual terms I never liked the colour's it produced which I thought dull compared with similar focal length lenses. And then there was the flare, and the random flare Jono mentioned was real and would have me scratching my head because sometimes the sun wasn't even out. That was a about ten years ago, I sold it within six months.
Nowadays if weight was a definite overriding issue and I wanted those same focal lengths for travel I would get the three CV Skopar's, the 28, 35, and 50. Maybe even add the 21mm in as well albeit it can produce the 'red edge' problem, but of course not a problem mounted on the MM.
Steve