The writing was on the wall for the Hobie 16's demise when all those slick new designs were submitted for evaluation. And I think they were all by European manufacturers.
I don't think the Mystere 4.3 (manufactured in Canada) was submitted as one of the options. (Mystere sells a lot of them -- mostly as a youth boat, I think -- in Europe where it is called the Tyka, with a little less sail area than the 4.3 that is used here.) But the Mystere 4.3/Tyka have numerous boats already on two continents, and they are a LOT less expensive than the SL16 is reported to be.
Adults race them here two-up and solo. Plus, the manufacturer seems very amenable to providing boats for events to get fleets going in areas in North America.
There may be other options, too. But the snowball is already on its way down the hill, so it is going to take some serious lobbying to change its course at this point.