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Hue is made by Signify (formerly philips lighting), not part of Philips anymore (though they probably own a good bit of stock in signify).

Doubt it, there's much (cheaper) competition in that space.

Maybe rich Californians can afford to put Hue in their entire houses because everyone I know (in EU) saw Hue prices and said pass.

Are they better than the IKEA version?

I can't recall for certain, but I think the Hue lights are brighter than IKEA's Tradfri lights. Certainly the newer 1100 lumen (max) ones should be. There's also the issue that the Tradfri lights have absolutely abysmal color replication, where green is some kind of weird lime color, blues are oddly cyan, etc. Hue is much better on that front.

I also think hue has a wider variety of bulb and plug-in options, which is nice since you have to stick with a single brand to get consistent colors. I don't think IKEA has an RGB bulb for GU10 fixtures, or pot lighting options, for example.

Other than the actual lights, though, I don't bother going with Hue products. They're generally overpriced, at least as far as I can tell.