But the point of FPGAs is to be cost effective. They are a substitute for custom PCB designs with RT components and somewhat low production numbers (500~5.000 d

But the point of FPGAs is to be cost effective. They are a substitute for custom PCB designs with RT components and somewhat low production numbers (500~5.000 devices, depends on the FPGA etc). Either you build something big enough that it doesn't make sense to make a PCB + components, and mass produce them on a medium level using FPGAs, or you aren't using FPGAs for what they are. It's fine if you are learning and toying with them, we like to hack on things, but you are never going to use them that way in a job, in production.