In reply to Alpenglow:
The pieces you mention are pretty stripped down minimal mountaineering gear, so I suspect appealing to non-climbers isn't the issue.
I think it's more that there seems to be a trend away from the one jacket to rule them all, blast shelter style of belay jacket, as epitomised by the the Patagonia DAS, to the "belay jacket" as a mid weight outer layer on the assumption that you already have one or more lighter insulated layers underneath. The sort of arrangement Dane talks about a lot on coldthistle.
The whole arrangement is probably lighter and more versatile, but in the interest of weight saving you lose useful things like the big, mitten friendly double zip, the huge cavernous hood, the big mesh pockets to warm gloves and water bottles.