Cost benefit analysis
So.
I can go out and buy a porteur rack for my hypothetical mid life crisis mobile and a randonneuring-type rack for the heavy iron ball, but that would cost somewhere in the ballpark of US$200 ($100 for a CETMA 5-rail porteur rack and another $100 for some Nitto-ish small rack.) Or I could go out and buy a brazing torch ($65 for “sized for home repair” one at the hardware store), a tube bender ($30, same place), and a small mass of steel tubing ($40?) and glue some up instead.
And that would give me a brazing torch I could use to repair the three cooling racks that have broken welds and are now tippy 3-legged racks with sharp rods sticking out of them. And if I was able to glue up my own racks, I could drop on mounting points for lights, my GPS units, and the front bag I’ve partially sewn up and have left waiting for a rack so I can properly fit it with hold-down straps.
And and it would give me brazing practice so if I snapped and wanted to add tiedowns to metal objects (like, oh, bicycle frames and forks) I could do so by myself instead of hiring some framemaker to do the work at $50-1000/hour.
Decisions, decisions.