[mst]

Not sure if there was anything wrong with the 18mm - maybe they felt that it was an odd one out due to its f/3.5 aperture.

Just by the specs, a 18/3.5 isn't all that exciting and competing with all sorts of wide angle zooms, "down" to the very affordable consumer ones (think of the Nikkor AF-S 18-35 for example). I guess they just can't price it so low that it will be an attractive option in this segment (no matter if it is optically superior or not).

-- Markus