I really like Cervelo's road offering but they have many problems:
1. They really managed to piss off their dealers. In years past according to bike shop owners I know, Cervelo was infamous for being a pain to deal with and for having extremely onerous sales practices. I'm not sure if this is still the case.
2. Whether based in fact or not, the brand developed a reputation online for slightly dubious quality combined with poor warranty coverage. If you had a problem with a Cervelo they apparently weren't the best company to deal with. This combined with the brand's premium pricing was not a good combination.
3. Vroomen left 7 years ago at this point and PON still hasn't managed to truly differentiate the brand. At the same time, other companies with larger R&D and marketing budgets are now several generations deep in their own aero road bikes. Now you've got bikes like the new Madone, Propel, Venge VIAS, Aeroad, Foil, SystemSix etc that all seem to be a generation beyond (at least in marketing) what Cervelo is offering.
4. Cervelo is still focused on the performance road and TT markets, both of which have been shrinking in the past couple of years. Gravel, MTB, e-bikes etc, all are growing rapidly and Cervelo is not playing in any of those spaces.

Ha! I have 3 black bikes and one red one. Black matches every kit I own. Meanwhile I see ads from QR trying to unload their hideous orange.

I'd take that orange over a black bike any day. But i like bright colors and don't really care if i match, so i think I'm a bit of an outlier in the tri/cycling world

I'm guessing that orange isn't too popular since that is the only color with a big discount. But I guess my preference for black just makes me a 'commoner'! :)

Well they tried. They sponsored the Belgian Waffle Ride when they rolled out the C-series. Which though it falls closer to the road side than the mountain side of "gravel", you throw 32mm tires on there, and there aren't many gravel rides it wouldn't do fine on.

But I agree C-series is a bit of a 'meh', not really having a single noteworthy characteristic, like taking 650b tires, bottle bosses, aerodynamics, etc.

I've been looking at entry level road bikes. The R2 is priced $200-400 above most of it's peers (Emonda SL5 Super Six EVO 105, Tarmac Sport, Orca M30, FR5, Teammachine SLR03-1) with no real component spec advantages, and some obvious component spec deficiencies to many of those. For example, the alloy seatpost is a glaring cost-cutting measure where most competitors have carbon. The wheelset is at the bottom-end of the 105-level bikes, too, where many competitors offer better.

The only basis to say that it's the "best 'entry point' value" is to value the frame itself at ~$300-$600 more than the competitive set. I haven't ridden all of them yet so I can't say which one I'd like best. I won't deny that the R2 has a nice frame. But so does the Orca, and the Emonda. It's a nice bike. But it doesn't impress me as being substantially better.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"