What's absurd is that the Mindstorms EV3 is $350 and just the CPU brick is $190. Given that since Mindstorms first came out, systems-on-a-chip like Raspberry P

What's absurd is that the Mindstorms EV3 is $350 and just the CPU brick is $190. Given that since Mindstorms first came out, systems-on-a-chip like Raspberry PI and Arduino are down to $10 or $20 dollars, why hasn't Lego brought its Mindstorm prices down? I loved, loved, loved Lego as a child and my kids love them still (even my 15-year old) but their prices reflect Scandinavian economics and not middle-class U.S. economics. I've come to dread walking down the Lego aisle at the toy store knowing that I'll have to drop $120 on a non-trivial set. I can't stand the thought that we live in a world where Lego bricks are an elitist toy. So, does Lego really believe that if I want my kid to play with robotics outside of school, I want to spend as much as an iPad or Chromebook for a one-chip microcontroller? That's just price gouging.