Buried Heritages
If a mech designer was able to advance by solely relying on the convenience of virtual mech designs, then Ves would be lying if he said that he was not interested!
There were not as many practical restraints in a virtual setting. Ves could design mechs by making use of all of the rare and expensive materials that were available in the catalog.
He could also experiment with unstable innovations and unfamiliar alien tech without worrying too much about wasting too much money or endangering the lives of mech pilots.
Still, Ves would have never been able to attain so much success by relying on virtual designs alone.
Design philosophies were much less effective in a virtual environment. Unless the mechers found a way to create an incredibly realistic virtual server that could compensate for this effect, Ves would find it a lot harder to sell his mechs.
This was especially the case when virtual mechs never really lasted long enough to undergo growth!