It's always nice to have an exchange of ideas.
It is, until it evolves into something else.
Sorry, I must have hit a nerve with previous comment or something. It wasn't my intention, but I see you've tried hard to cause offense. That's a shame.
Believing that "only 1% of the total market" can afford anything above the very low prices you charge is definitely scarcity mindset thinking. Very common.
AI tools don't affect what we do, the type of clients we work with don't consider the utilisation of such tools as a viable option, and you won't agree with that because you don't understand our market or what we do, which is of no bother to me.
Ultimately it's perfectly fine for two companies to operate in different segments, and that's all this is. You don't have to understand it but it is what it is.
I think, if you're making such a big deal about using "specialist designers" and trying hard to emphasise the quality of said designer(s), it's quite contradictory to then have them design a business card, not like it enough - or trust in their ability enough - to then go to a business community and get/apply so much feedback that it completely changes every aspect of said business card.
But it's for the best that you did.
As for your, shall we say, interesting, critique of an in-progress website for a client that's spent the best part of a year trying to figure out who they are, who they want to be, what they sell and how to package/promote all of that - something you claim to understand - all the things you've pointed out are either being worked on (some things aren't quick fixes) or really a very trivial non-issue.
I presented Allixo's website as an example of brand and design capability. I love the brand, my team does, every member of our client's leadership team does, as did their existing and new clients. So, I don't know what to tell you really.
Comments about poor value for money is a tell tale sign that you don't really understand much beyond knocking out a quick website in the most cost effective way possible.
Again, not a criticism, you just operate in a different segment and that's perfectly okay.
I have been through the few websites of yours promoted on your website, burried deep within certain pages and not at all easy to find, (it's like you're intentionally hiding them), and most of them have exactly the same problems - and more - that you're pointing out.
It won't let me upload images for some reason, new account I guess, but Antler Chews is a prime example. It doesn't even load the hero section properly, it seems to get stuck at 60% width leaving a massive white gap to the right hand side, the CTA buttons are overlapping so you can't even read half of the text on the left button, the hero also features white text against a low opacity black background, but with a pure white dog directly underneath it; the video has the dog moving all over the place making it near impossible to read any of the white text above it.
I could go on, but I don't need to because I know the limitations of low budgets, cheap labour and how many more issues there are going to be based on what I've seen already.
But I wouldn't hold that against you or your team because I understand that client's themselves, or their situations, impose limitations that can't be bypassed. Whether that's a client who doesn't care about and can't/won't invest into brand or a client who's in the middle of a major evolution of their business but still wants to make progress on as many fronts as possible.
There's a market for what you do, and a market for what I do, and I wish you luck in finding more success in your space.