I meant that it's prohibitively expensive to have TWO piles of gear, especially when it must reside in different rooms, and one of those rooms is inherently allergic to patchbays (between the extra cable, connectors and patch cord you can see very significant degradation in signals - running them between rooms will make this worse).

From a marketing perspective, you'll "need" some outboard for each activity. In mastering, the price forces a degree of focus on quality and attention, alongside the maintenance and calibration any outboard might require. So you tend to buy a few great, flexible pieces that meet critical needs, and build from there.

You're faced with very different requirements and demands in both areas, with little crossover possible or desirable. Combine this with Brad's clarified point (need an additional room build-out) and you have added a lot of cost, but not necessarily increased your income much.