Not every company is the baby of some innovator spending his 401K slaving away in his garage to build a better product. At some point the successful ones have large R&D and then manufacture abroad. When they release a new product, I am sure that they start off with a price point in mind, and they determine that point by looking at what is already on the market. If they can build a product for $X but have determined that the customer base is willing to pay $5X, they price it accordingly.
I think what the OP is getting at is that we don’t see comparably built equipment being sold at $3X, with the thought that lowering price should increase market share. I tend to agree. When Paradigm released their ‘Founder’ speaker line, I thought they sounded great, better than my current speakers which retailed for three times as much. However there were plenty of disparaging comments, on this site and elsewhere. Paradigm doesn’t have the same niche as , for example, McIntosh. When they release a product that is priced below Market Comparable, the expectation is that it must be unworthy. I have also had Sony SACD players that blew away, or at least held their own with higher priced boutique brands, also similarly disrespected
