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The magazine and how it interfaces with the firearm is the single most complex and error-prone mechanism of semi-autos. Gun Jesus talks about this at length, particularly in his discussions about one-off and prototype arms manufacturing. On top of that, arms manufacturers work under some of the tightest tolerances possible. A mechanical device that works well 99% of the time is generally thought to be pretty good, but when your life depends on it suddenly 99% isn't good enough. With guns if it doesn't go bang EVERY time without fail over thousands of rounds, some will say it's not reliable, and lack of reliability will kill a gun company's reputation faster than anything else. So a lot rides on the magazine.You sound like you have some background in product management. And your points are valid, yes. But the companies still manage to crank out variations of guns with different sights, safety/no safety, coatings, barrels, optics/no optics, etc. So some complexity is there already. Mags are usually produced by a third party supplier (Meggar, for example), so the engineering costs can be absorbed in part by them. Yes, converting mags that were originally designed for more rounds can lead to problems, but we see lots of good 10 round mags from Sig, CZ, Glock, so this is not insurmountable. One idea: for fewer SKUs, offer a base package with no magazines and include coupons for your state's magazines to be drop shipped directly to the customer. They do it with various red dot plates now. Retail shops probably won't like it, but they can stock the necessary magazines and sell them with the guns they order. And while we are it, let's push for more interchangeable magazines, yes?
Some of those 3rd parties do well, and others have had their reputations ruined. ProMag is a great example - they make mags for damn near everything, and have a terrible reputation in the industry because their mags don't always run right. Magpul, on the other hand, seems to have landed the aftermarket mag game pretty well. MecGar is another one.
So it's definitely possible, but it's the same problems as with the gun manufacturer. Those 3rd party companies now have to invest their time, money, and resources tooling up to produce a line of mags that might or might not sell well. It's a pretty hefty gamble, particularly because overall sales info is not publicly available. Nobody can tell you, a private citizen, how well CZs are selling in California. Without that data, you're simply guessing and hoping your mags sell in a very specific market.
As for selling a gun without magazines, I don't think they legally can due to consumer protection laws. Semi autos require a magazine in order to function, so selling a firearm without a magazine is selling an incomplete product.
I think there are a lot of opportunities that firearm and aftermarket parts manufacturers are missing out on, but that's just how it rolls. Best thing you can do is contact those companies and make your wants known. Maybe they'll listen, maybe they won't, but they can't solve a problem if nobody tells them about it.
