Unsound,
You made some good points and no hard feelings. I have owned several Macs, MC300 for about 5 years, a MC2105 for about 45 years interestingly, a MC402 for a few short months. I also had a non autoformer Mac for a very short time that I didn't like at all. I just didn't really like the sound of either of those as much as my somewhat modified MC2105, so I really don't have blinders on about Mac gear.
That said, I also owned a wonderful ANK 300b Anniversary amp for 5 years, and I have to be honest and say that the MC2105 was not embarrassed in its company. Same for a Pass Labs 250.5 which sounded terrible in comparison to the MC2105 to my ears.
I also think that you may be right in thinking that part of the reason that they stay with the autoformer technology is that it is a strong part of their identity.
Thanks for your thoughts, John