I know it Jim..I've been searching for a year for a good, reliable pattern sander...never found one. That one in the link looks like it is built correctly, but yes it is costly.
I emailed grizzly customer support as well and asked them to consider carring some type of pattern sander. No equipment mfg (other than $5k plus commercial manfuacturers) makes a good pattern sander (or any for that matter). I think Grizzly could do quite well with a simple 1.5HP spindle sander with a bearing on the bottom of the drum, or even make an attachment for their belt sanders to convert the drive drum into a pattern sander.
I think my request fell on deaf ears.