Note that the knock-offs are clones of the original ~10 year old Salae Logic design, which also used the CY7C68013 without an FPGA (and had smaller margins than

Note that the knock-offs are clones of the original ~10 year old Salae Logic design, which also used the CY7C68013 without an FPGA (and had smaller margins than their current design, it only cost ~$100). They added the FPGA as a way of differentiating their products from the clones after they started becoming widespread.