Yeah, Apple's stuff is expensive. This is still alarming to someone? If you're looking for inexpensive, you don't go to Apple. That's not what they do, or have ever done.
Yesterday that monitor didn't even existed. Today half of internet acts like life on Earth is impossible without it.
I don't think that's the issue. If Apple just priced this monitor at $2.4k and it included the stand no one would have cared.
Why does everyone think this thing doesn't have a stand? Does no one read the article?