I am not pleased with its appearance at the moment.

The original had some intriguing details, and the form led your eye around on a tour of its features.  The one I currently have sitting in CAD isn't like that.  It's bland.  Just a box with holes.

A lot of this is because after doing the first cost analysis I started shearing away excess material like dog crap from shoe treads.  Get it off, get it off, get it off.   For subtractive (read: traditional) machining, this is the most effective cost saving measure you can do.  Not only do you use less material (and aluminum is NOT CHEAP at the moment), but you spend less time removing material.  It saves tool wear, way oil, coolant, and most importantly: time.  When you do that though, it limits your options on the products form.

Time is money, time is value.  Saving time is the only reason anyone would want this product in the first place - but people will also be spending their time working to make the money to purchase it, so they at least have to want the product more that they wanted those 4-8 hours of time they spent to make that money.  After all, you could replicate the functional aspects of the project with a sheet of acrylic.

And the surest way for people to want something is to make it beautiful, or at least characterful.  Lovely to look at and something they are proud to own.

So, I'll have to sacrifice a little cost for form, for beauty.  Make it worth the cost by making it something that someone would not just need, but want and love.  Something they'd treasure as part of their setup.