1500$ because you don't have bulk parts, otherwise it could go down by a significant amount.

However, the 5k doesn't include all the hours of engineering, which costs a lot more than the hardware.

With that said, you are absolutely right that we get dog shit computers for the price. The amount of hours I've spent in my life reducing the cost for a board is insane. And bear in mind that this wasn't for high volume production neither where hardware cost reductions have a big impact.

I hope that this guy go on to do his own thing and doesn't get gobbled by the corporate machine (or become the corporate machine).