I guess I am very fortunate to have had an honest local Yamaha/Honda dealer for almost 50 years. I bought my first new bike from then in 1973 and have been a loyal customer since then, as they have treated me very well all that time. They are family owned and now the 3 sons of the founder operate it and I consider them friends as well as being my preferred dealer. I have had the chance to fill in at the dealership occasionally since I retired in 2003, both in sales and setup. It was made very clear to me when I worked in sales that we treat people as we would like to be treated. With that attitude,it makes it an enjoyable experience as you try to help someone buy a toy and when it works out they are happy that they got the toy and I feel good as I was able to help them get it. BTW, I get no commission, so my goal is to be helpful to the customer and the dealership and I take pride when I can accomplish that. Of course there are a small minority of customers who are jerks with an attitude, just as evidently there are dealers who are jerks and it takes a lot patience to listen to their know it all spiel as they try to impress.
With the exception of this year, because of the virus they have an open house 3 day weekend each May and thousands of riders attend. It is always a fun weekend, with demo rides, vendor displays, live music and they raffle off a new Gold Wing. Customers from all over the US attend.
The T7 didn't work out for me at this stage in my life, but I had to find that out to my own satisfaction. I never once considered it as a replacement for the 14 ES, since the ES is used 99% of the time on pavement for me and I consider it the best sport touring bike out of the many I have had. I considered it as a possible replacement for my totally setup 14 DR650, but the physical dimensions pushed it slightly over the edge for that use for me at my age. It is an incredible bike, though.
As for dealers scalping customers on a new in demand model, some may do that, but I have two friends in the same part of IL that I am and we bought T7's from 3 different dealers and all 3 of us got them for under MSRP, including TTL. All 3 of us have good relationships with our dealers, so that may be one reason. Back on 2000 when Honda brought out the RC51, which was in such demand that dealers were advertising them for $1,000-$2,000 over the $10,000 MSRP, my dealer told me he had never had to do that to stay in business and he wasn't going to start, as customers remember such tactics. I got mine for considerably under MSRP and at the time was just another loyal customer.
So, I feel sorry for those who have dealers they regard as scum. I am sure there are many unscrupulous ones out there. Dealers have to make some profit to stay in business and keep their staff employed and they don't have to operate that way to do it. As evidenced by some of the above comments, some unfortunately do.