In the 70's vertical integration where you own as much of the supply & distribution chain as possible became unfashionable to be replaced with horizontal integration where you own all of the brands so you set the price because you own all of the brands.
This of course is another way of saying monopoly .
ut despite all of the anti-monopoly laws in both the US & down here, that is what happened .
So money that should have gone into R & D went into buying out your competition and a lot of this came from selling you manufacturing.
An animal called the MBA rose out of the accounts department & migrated to the board rooms .
They made massive profits by selling off the manufacturing side of almost every business & switching to assembling ( Briggs ) or even outsourced that ( Ryobi ) because what the MBA's learned in college is "All of the value in a product or a company is the brand name"
The B & S / Generac or Tecumseh / Peerless are examples of this .
Managers got parachuted in from colleges who have no idea about the company / product or industry because management theory says management is the same regardless of the industry.
The UK did this in the 60's & 70's and we all know what happened to UK industry which is what is now happening to USA industry now the only difference is the origin of the rebadged products being Japan for the UK & China for the US .
I just bought an oil pump for a 365 chainsaw direct from the manufacturer EMAS in China for $ 6.25 + $ 6.10 shipping ( US $ ) as a "sample ".
The same part is $ 156.95 ( Aus ) from a discount on line retailer genuine or around 20% dearer if bought from a franchised dealer .
The oil feed pipe 503 42 67-01 is $ 20.95 from the same retailer. I paid 12¢ for it but had to order 50 of them from Alibaba with free shipping .
Now if they are bad when they get here, I tell Alibaba & get a refund ( the vendors does not get paid till I verify they arrived & were good ) .
I could have got them for 2¢ a piece from the manufacturer but the MOQ was 2000 at that price. ( 3¢ if I want them custom packed in a plastic bag and 4¢ for custom blister pack )
As for your gasket, it is for a 10 to 15 year old trimmer so to a $ 2,000,000 / year manager it has past its use by date & should be replaced
PS $ 49.95 ( AUS ) HERE + FREIGHT .