I'm sorry but I have to disagree on that.
First of all, why would PRS rely on any other company parts anymore? From SE to PS, they now build all their parts and they don't have to rely on "half imported parts".
Secondly, PRS already know very well how to build a great tele/strat type guitar. They did it with the 305, the DC3/NF3 or even the Brent Mason somehow.
The main reason they didn't get huge success is no surprise, it's because of the price. They sold some of them to the PRS Fans like us, their current existing customer base, but they couldn't extant it to new user coming from Fender American Strat because the price wasn't competitive enough, because it was only core models (and for the SE EG it's probably because it was before the time SE were well accepted as good guitars and not only few as some PRS for the poor). But now PRS can be competitive on any given price range. The SE line is well accepted as real good guitars and valuable instruments for the price. And now there's the S2 Line which fall perfectly in the same price range as the Fender American and American Deluxe Strats price range.
Just like PRS did with Gibson Les Paul... they prove to the world that PRS was not only the Custom 24/22 anymore, but they could do a lot of different guitar types. They came with very good alternative to Gibson with the Singlecut and McCarty. They decline them on pretty much all 3 categories and now PRS can easily compete with any Epiphone/Gibson Les Paul. They definitely haven't fail badly on that part, and they could definitely apply some similar strategy with Fender.
They did what I call a "testing run" with the 305/DC3/NF3 models. And now they could hammer this down and come with the equivalent on all 3 categories and be competitive with Squier/Mexican/American and Custom Shop Fender Strats... and without relying on any "half imported parts". From a pure marketing strategy point of view, it would make perfect sense. If you own a guitar company and when someone is asking you for a great Single coil guitar and your only reply would be: "Well, we have $7k Private Stock or you can just go buy a competitor products", it's great if your only goal is to be a boutique private stock company. But if you want to reach as much customers as possible, and you know how to build something that could be competitive, you'd be fool to not do it.
I agree with other guys that it would be a new "challenge" for the S2 line because it would be different from what is made so far. I get that. But as said, the SE line by itself is a proof the line can contain very different guitar, even on a large scale mass market cost efficiency production model. There was semi-hollow models at first with the S2 line... now there is. It's not like the S2 production line would be completely apart from the Core production line. They're only cutting some cost by having more basics shape body, simpler finishing, less expensive electronic parts, a gig bag, etc... So, if the could be flexible enough to have the 305/DC3/NF3 before on the Core line, they could have equivalent model on the S2 line too... with of course, basic body shape, simpler, finishing, etc...
The quick photoshop I made with the Vela body and SSS pickup configuration (and old DC3 pickguard) clearly show how it could be done... Maybe the current Vela is only the first model of several ones in the S2 line, just like they did with the semi-hollow.
Of course, this is just pure speculation. But it would be quite crazy to be so sure that it can't happen and if it would happen it would automatically be a fail. And we can't really know it because the "S2 DC3" I'm describing here would probably not try to target us, we wouldn't be the main customer target... It's the current people that NEVER bought a single PRS because PRS didn't have what they wanted (the equivalent of a Fender American Strat) that would probably be the customers. We (PRS fans) are not representative of this market... If you're a company, you always try to expand your customer base, not only rely on your existing one.
So yeah, I have to disagree with your statement. The best thing is that we both don't know anything about what PRS could do or not and how well it could be successful or not.
So let's wait and see and future will tell us who thought well.
My quite long 2 ¢