I live in a rural touristy area. Nearly all pins on route are B/W, generally in fair to poor condition. Lots of pins on location, but most locations have only one machine. Nearly all are horribly maintained. GI lights burnt out, pop bumpers inoperable, slingshots inoperable & flippers inoperable. Playfields rarely if ever cleaned. The last time I played MSF on route, one of the balls got hopelessly stuck BEHIND one of the slingshots. I know one of the techs that works for the area OPS. It boils down to $$$. The high $$$ profit comes from the illegal video gambling machines. Nearly every bar, bowling alley & gas stations have 5 of the illegal video games on there premises. Redemption machines (cranes) by far the next biggest coin drop. Pinball machines way down the list as far as weekly coin drop. Seemingly, area OPS have little desire to have fully maintained pins on location given there meager return. Seems the hours dedicated to pin maintenance are directly related to coin drop...which isn't much.
I'm convinced the future of route pinball in rural areas......looks grim.