the average pi costs about $200 these days (if you can find one)
The value calculation has always been a bit iffy vs "let's see what small-factor desktop machines people are dumping in the local classifieds" if what you want is a cheap PC to mess with. That's probably very much true for software instrument / sequencing stuff.
Because of the ecosystem, the value calculation has been better for the Pi if you're building projects that are a small computer built into a larger electronic setup. But at the current price & availability I'm definitely trying to figure out what other single board options are easy enough or considering learning more about the microcontroller space.
Which makes it all the much odder for RPi to write what amounts to a press piece about their hardware. You don't need more marketing, you need the price to not be $∞ due to supply issues.
So if you look at this as an advert about industrial usage aimed at industrial users, it makes sense.
Honestly I lost count how many times I perked up from the alert on rpilocator only for the stock to disappear while I was going through the checkout.
You do have to kinda watch it a bit obsessively if you're really serious about finding one, but it can be done. Or you could also just constantly refresh the page(s) of a couple of vendors that you know to get stock on some regular / semi-regular basis. Adafruit is one, and Elektor seems to get stock now and then as well.