We've known that Atmel CPUs are cheap. I just bought a tube of them a week ago for less than $20. And I have enough regulators and spare junk to make a fakeduin

We've known that Atmel CPUs are cheap. I just bought a tube of them a week ago for less than $20. And I have enough regulators and spare junk to make a fakeduino for $3-ish. That hasn't been the point. I can go buy a nice, stackable hardware platform with everything Open and just not worry about it. The bootcode has already been written, and the IDE is short and sweet. Everything "Just Works". And then, we can discuss the crazy good amount of modules that have extended the Arduino IDE (and associated hardware). It's well worth $30 for a rapid prototyping and design. Then, once I get a set design, I can go the chip+regulator+resistors route. And then I can tear the breadboarded setup on my Arduino and use it for another project testing!