HD has always maintained that racing was _very_ important to them. It's important to their _identity_ not to their sales. Because they have the money (there's no doubt about that) they can spend a bazzillion dollars if that's what it's going to take for them to achieve their goal. The problem is, they don't know what to do, what to spend on, to get the results.
They have finally totally revised their race management this year. The former director is out, a new one is in, and they have an all new R&D group.
Previously, they closed their shop and went to the races. When they were on the road, nobody was developing anything new. Now they have a whole second operation that does nothing but develop new stuff. This is separate from the team that races.
However, the new effort has yet to produce any significant results -- on the track or on the bike in terms of parts.
People are watching to see if the revamped effort is going to produce a result or if they are just going to refluff the same ol same ol.
It seems to me like they need to give up some more of what they've held on to for so long in order to make progress.
There are a lot of people that would like to see them do well, but nobody is going to say "well yeah, 11th place but it's the only REAL superbike man. Made in USA. Yeah!"
No amount of chrome and BS can produce a race result.