If I am understanding you correctly, I agree. Given the example I gave, it would be plausible to have a number of products that account for the most popular combinations of options and attributes. Unfortunately, this was just a simple example. the actual options go much, MUCH deeper than 3 selections (for instance, "Crystal" has 80 color options, of which have 2 shapes associated with each color, and 2 sizes within each shape). Without dependent attributes, it doesn't seem like there is any way to tweak the current capabilities to accomplish this. Am I understanding you correctly?