In mold electronics

can compete with standard PCB with long distance between components

Why would it want to? It does stuff that standard printed circuit materials can't, so it is going to be the cheapest option for particular cases.

Making the business case involves working how many of them there might be, and how much you have to spend on advertising to draw the process to the at tention of the people most likely to want to exploit its unique advantages.

With any new technology there are early adopters who will have particularly appropriate applications (if they can be persuaded to think them up). Beat ing out existing processes to replace existing products is part of the foll ow-up consolidation phase. It takes a lot more capital investment.