Pirate 3D released a video that seems to have answered my questions exactly.
The first 20 seconds is the interesting points. Looks like their XY gantry is similar to bot-of-the-cloth, but without the cross-over. Interesting this puts all the motors in the same plane, including the Z-Axis.
I’m not sure if this is a better or worse than other configurations or how it managed to bring the price down or if that price will be sustainable as the business scales. But Pirate 3D seems like good guys and they’ve opened the box, so good luck Pirate 3D.
