It is pretty surprising, given what they've pulled off with there bench planes, that they used that stuff for their shoulder plane. They seem to have been making a pretty strong effort to match LN and LV on most publishable type specs. Is it possible that since a shoulder plane is technically a low angle plane that they think its a better option for that? I guess more likely its that they couldn't produce a shoulder plane to spec with an 01 or A2 blade and keep the price enough lower than an LV or LN for it to be able to compete against them in the market.
As I've said before I've always been quite happy with my WR no. 6, but I got it for $110, which was a phenomenal value. I've never had a strong opinion for or against WR stuff in general, but in all honesty I have my doubts about that shoulder plane. For the life me I can't see why someone would purchase that when an LV medium is only $30 more. I wonder how it will do. Like Josh said earlier, from a purely bang for buck perspective it (and there no. 7) just doesn't seem like as good of a value as say their no. 4 might be, considering the LV and LN options that are available in the same price range.
Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...