I agree 2 percent R&D is much too low.
However, 15 percent seems high. One of the best pharmaceutical companies I know of (Alcon) spends about 10 percent of sales (more than $500 million a year) on R&D and their competitors say they cannot match Alcon on R&D spending. One competitor made a big deal of hiking R&D spending from 5 percent to 7 percent.
Now, this is drug/device development with significant costs for clinical trials.
I would say BOLT should be doubling its R&D spending.
At some point, almost any debt-free company becomes cheap. For BOLT, I think the current price is a value.
Regarding management, I agree entirely that the CEO must have the personality to be the face of the company. Anything less is not doing your job. It should be a qualification requirement for being a CEO and Soto needs to know it -- time to step aside for The Invisible Man.