You know this isn't rocket science. For an $8000 machine, JJP could spend an extra $30 and add an arduino. Use this sort of logic:

1) arduino is wired to PC power button
2) PC bios is set to stay off in case of power loss. This requires pressing power button to start PC.
3) when system is powered on, arduino gets power and powers up
4) arduino on boot up, closes power button switch for N milliseconds and opens it again. Arduino goes idle.
5) at power off, arduino and PC lose power so power off state is the same.
6) on next power on, #4 above will occur.

Should be permanently solved. No need for a reset switch, ever. There are probably similar circuits that could be built for even cheaper than an arduino.

It would depend on my audience and what I was building. If I were building a pinball machine which used a computer which, for the first time ever in a pinball machine could get into a non booting state, well I'd spend the extra money. The math you present is not too fair. $30 on $8000 is not that significant. If you are going to call it $60,000 then you should multiply the sales, too:
$8000 x 2000 = 16 million dollars. Why are we worried about $60k on $16 mil? And the arduino solution was what I could come up with using no time in thinking about the solution. I'm sure something more dedicated could be created for around $10.

Hey Alex, sorry if I added fuel to this fire on the reset issue. I respect you and the work you do. As you know I was hit with the reset issue myself and was able to figure it out once you told me what to look for. (I mounted a reset button inside). I really think its a pretty easy perm solution though and was coming at this more from an overall interested engineering perspective.

If it were me, I think I'd have a push button power switch on the bottom of the cabinet instead of the rocker switch and have it turn the computer on. Then I think I'd have a smart power strip type circuit so when the computer started up, the rest of the system came alive. (This is how I wired my CCC and my video pin). Then to turn off you hit the power button again and PC shuts down. When it powers off, smart power circuit kills power to the rest. Could have PC default to power on on power loss for those that power on with a breaker.