What's the deal with DCC?

[TinGoat]

Hi Kids,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but....

Why are there so many different DCC Decoders?

Don't we really only need one or two?

Maximum amperage rating I understand. You want a Decoder that won't fry in a loco that draws a lot of juice. Generally Speaking, the more amperage, the larger the decoder.

So why not just make decoders that are rated 1 amp, 2 amps, 3 amps, etc...

Make them all with the same number of functions.

With sound, or piggy back a separate sound decoder?

Okey, so you run into space limitations and you may have to put the control decoder in the loco and the sound decoder in the tender with the speaker... Or shoe horn them into different parts of the loco... What-ever...

I get that...

I also understand that each type of locomotive has different sounds.

So what?

You can get sound decoders that allow you to record on to them for custom sounds that you can download from the web and load them onto the decoder.

Why not just have a few generic decoders that you can customize to your needs instead of the dozens of more expensive loco specific decoders that are out there???

It just seems like a scam to me...