Back to the subject at hand,
The main problem is that it is a thankless job requiring alot of hard work and financial responsibility to pull off even a small event.
Worse yet, there are few people with the time and resources who are willing to sacrifice to such extent.
as no doubt Steve found out himself, it simply isn't cost effective to hold such an event here in Southern California.
With two large events already serving SoCal (MAX and RAP) combined with an almost infinite number of retail shops (150+ at last count) hobbyists here are simply not as "hungry" for product.
It's basic economics: provide zone A with X number of widgets over Y amount of time and Z level of Demand develops (or lack thereof)
One could say "I'd like to have a vegetable farmer's market around the corner from my house" (and so would many others, no doubt) but that doesn't necessarily mean its a financially viable idea.
The best course of action is probably what MASVC have been doing for years: hosting a frag swap in a commercial location (thank goodness they finally left the TAAM location) and just having fun with it.