I might have overlooked it, but nobody seems to have mentioned this so far: Tamiya is a company that has two focuses: Static Scale Models, and Radio Control Models. I haven't got exact numbers, but they sure don't do Static models on the side - in fact, they once started out doing RC models on the side!
And then if you take their RC business seperately, their core business is hobby grade vehicles (mainly RTR) that offer an easy (re)-entry into the RC hobby. They do this by means of scale models, nostalgia (re-releases) and simple constructions.
They offer racing classes specifically for their cars, and then also offer a step up - dedicated club racing models and classes - on the side. And then finally a tiny part of their sales comes from directly from TRF cars.
Of course, the TRF keeps up a reputation that draws people to their higher end models in general (also non-TRF). However, this part of their operation takes a relatively big amount of investment for the cash they get for it. Look at the releases they've been making in the past 5 years, and they core business seems to have become that which makes them easy money: Hobby Grade RTRs for (re)-entry in the hobby. Also, to me they seem to aim on their bigger markets of old: Japan and the USA.
You don't have to like that (and I sure don't), but in that perspective this decision is understandable. They don't currently have a good distribution platform in Europe for buggy racing - to build that up it costs extra money and time they don't want to spend, and with the current market position not working out they seem to pull the plug on TRF's offroad operation (at least for the European market, but quite possibly alltogether).
One can only imagine if they might have extended & expanded their operation if Lee in fact won the Worlds (in 2WD)...
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