Well, as I said. Without seeing the conversation it's all speculation. I didn't mean anything personal.
It's not hard to understand if you've worked with Horst. What he did isn't unusual for other potters either.
the way it works is that the "commissioned" pot isn't really "Commissioned"--which suggests it is a one-off, custom designed work. This isn't. This design is on Horst's stock list. He makes more than one of that style every so often. What happened here is that the buyer asked to have one made. Horst said he could do that, but had only one left. He told the buyer he was going to make more, which given the changeability and unpredictable nature of glazes, would offer the buyer more choices (and perhaps more attractive choices than having to settle for a choice of one. The buyer chose to wait.
Horst sold the existing stocked pot to someone WHO OPTED NOT TO WAIT for the wider choice of pots.
Unfortunately, the future pots wound up in the work room scrap bin as they had kiln flaws, and Horst's kiln went on the fritz afterward...Simple bad luck. Doesn't mean Horst is out of business and this pot design wont' be available in the future.
I would also point to the tree linked in this post. It is shown in a rather deep growing container. Unless the owner has worked that root mass extremely hard, fitting it into this small, shallow pot is going to take some know how and some luck.