Yes, it is definitely a trickle-up effect, but what I've observed over the decades is the bigger the rifle company, the less likely they are to take chances on new trends. No doubt this is partly because it costs more for a big company (which makes and sells more rifles) to make a bunch of trendy rifles--and also costs more if the trendy rifles don't sell, in several ways. It also takes longer to respond to trends, because more factory changes are required to tool up, or even just make room for new tooling because they're already producing successful rifles.
In some ways they can't PHYSICALLY move fast enough to take advantage of new trends, but they also need to make money for stockholders, so are run by more people, including a board of directors and management staff that are normally at least middle-aged, and got where they are by making prudent, well-considered decisions. So they're not set up either mechanically or organizationally to make quick changes to accommodate current trends.
And the people that run them have seen plenty of trends come and go over the years. They've been involved in running major companies for decades, not gunsmithing shops or retail stores. They're looking at the big picture, not just what's happening this year.
This is why smaller companies owned, often owned by individuals or families, usually take the initial advantage in new trends. Back in the the late 1970's synthetic-stocked rifles, lightweight rifles were the hot deal among rifle loonies. The trend started growing, but for a long time only custom rifles filled the demand. Then in 1985 Melvin Forbes started making semi-production rifles on his own actions, and a few larger manufacturers started dipping cautiously into the market.
Remington eventually offered the 700 Titanium around 2000, but they still weren't quite as light as NULA's. Kimber was the first to make a production rifle in the same weight-range as Melvin's--20 years later. All of this is why mid-sized rifle manufacturers, like Kimber or Weatherby, will take risks on rifle-loony trends long before larger companies.
One of today's trends is heavier long-range rifles, especially "chassis" rifles--and like lightweight "mountain" rifles in the 1970's, the first were primarily custom rifles. This finally started to trickle up to major manufacturers like Ruger and Savage in the past couple of years.
This doesn't mean the major manufacturers are dumb. Instead they're playing a different game than NULA, Nosler, Tikka or even Kimber, so they play by somewhat different rules.
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