i've never been a fan of gibson guitars tbh, the premium price tag is for that "made in america" on the headstock other companies are producing much better products for far less, for the gibson price tag i'd rather go to a custom luthier and get them to build and LP type
The thing is, for all their faults, if you want a Gibson, it has to be a Gibson. There's really no substitute - there are plenty of better-made instruments, especially from Japan, lots that are better value, but if you want an es175 etc, anything other than Gibson is close but not quite, and doesn't have the Gibson logo on it like your guitar hero's instrument does. So there will always be people prepared to pay a premium, and I think it would take monumental stupidity for them to actually go out of business.
