[glend (Glen)]

Raymo, it may well come down to people buying what they can afford at the low end of the market - and that tends to be the Skywatcher models. Bearing in mind that ED APOs are very expensive aperture in comparison with newts. At the high end of the market, where the 'brand name' is more important, then the TAKs and Televues reign. Is a TAK better than a Skywatcher, well I'll let the proponents of both argue that. Neither is cost effective compared to a good newt or even a nice truss RC, but to the 'fans' that doesn't matter.
As an example: OPT Corp has the Meade 130mm ED APO on sale for $3000 USD (and they may not be allowed to ship that to Australia) but if you could get it at that price, and ignoring the exchange rate, GST, and shipping, you would still be way ahead if you bought a 10" RC for $2700 AUD from Andrews or the Bintel equivalent. Have a look at what Bintel is asking for the Orion 130mm ED APO ($4300 AUD).

Your present plaform is the most cost effective aperture .- if you assume that your newt has 30% obstruction by the secondary you would need a refractor of more than 140mm to get the same effective aperture.