Hi Murray,
We're certainly in business to make a profit; but back in the last days of the SHCP rebate, competition was so fierce, the margins were very, very thin - so much so, that some providers when hitting problems ended up going to the wall; particularly when they started really feeling the currency exchange issues.
Some providers also offered entry level systems as what's called a "loss leader".. with the goal of upselling you to a larger system immediately... or when you go to upgrade later on (as you're experiencing now).
Some of those deals happening were a little shady too - we wound up publishing a
solar power consumer guide as a result to try to raise awareness. The publishing of the guide wasn't totally altruistic of course, but we were getting phone calls from people who had been burned by some of these deals. This was starting to tarnish the reputation of the industry; so we hoped the guide may make for a more level playing field and help people to avoid some of the pitfalls
The thing with the rebates now too is that they vary depending on where you live, unlike the previous rebate. Australia is divided up into various zones based on how much renewable energy can be generated by a solar panel in a given area - we have
more info on that here.
It sounds as though you're happy with your system though, which is great - you certainly got your start in solar at a very good price

.