I think the main reason FMG is charging what they are for the Italian units (and subsequent sets) is because you get many more pieces than you get in a game of A&A 1940 and they are much more detailed than the OOB pieces. Perhaps you don’t care as much about the detail on the pieces themselves and thus have no real use for FMG’s pieces, and that’s fine for you. Some gamers ARE more interested in the tiny details and as such are willing to pay a little more to get them. As for me, I’m just a piece junkie. Gotta have more.
You make a point about the different game setups that have come out (OOB, Alpha, Alpha +, Alpha +1, Alpha +2). My group always uses the Alpha +2 setup simply because it is the latest version and we like some of the changes, particularly in the NOs and scramble rules. Remember in OOB, you could only scramble from islands, NOT coastal airbases, and it was an unlimited number of fighters and tac bombers that could do so. So basically, only Japan was allowed to scramble to defend their capital, which is just stupid to me. Like England or the US wouldn’t scramble to defend the capital. Plus, Japan could conceivably scramble 20+ planes so you would never be able to invade Japan. With the victory conditions (all 3 Axis capitals in Allied control) you could have a game last forever.
One other thing I didn’t like about OOB setup was how many planes Japan had. They had WAY too many planes. Heck, even with Alpha +2 they still have twice as many as Germany and the Luftwaffe was the largest air force in the world back then.