That’s a good point. I wonder what kind of tolerances were needed to make the original records? It probably wasn’t terribly tight, but still necessary to make a playable record. Versus a simple microcontroller that can play any number of songs and very limited physical tolerances.
The electric version might actually be cheaper to produce.
"any number of songs" = 10, in this case, and up to 16 but the extra 6 can't be delivered since there's no update mechanism. Versus the original which could play a much larger variety of songs based on the records themselves. Presumably using a music box like mechanism, not a vinyl record style mechanism, which greatly loosens the quality constraints on the records (based on listening to a recording of the original).
The electric version might actually be cheaper to produce.