This article didn't address what is, to me, the most interesting question: why can't you buy these outside Dubai? Anyone know?
Suppose you decided to carry them and they cost more, both from a material perspective and a reduced repeat customer perspective. Cheap competitors in stores won't just go away and they'll be on shelves next to them. Brand recognition and/or loyalty will only go so far and way too many people will prefer the cheaper cost. So the manufacturer/distributor have to provide both or risk losing sales. Now there's an extra sku in the mix and I'd wager that even with brand recognition the cheaper ones will outsell the Dubai ones, which makes the distribution overheads even more unpalatable. And so on.
I'm sure they've done their research and it doesn't add up from a business sense. It works in Dubai because the regulations eliminate part of the race to zero.
Even selling them directly online is problematic because of distributor territory, exclusivity etc. If the manufacturer competes with its distributor network (that they rely on) then that doesn't end well either.
I doubt it's any sort of conspiracy by 'big led' to keep you from buying them, but is more to do with mundane and unfortunate things like above.
I still want them though.
The only reason you "can't buy them" is because you wouldn't (or at least people wouldn't). You can't easily tell how good the LED setup is in the bulbs, and price isn't necessarily a good indicator, so you're unlikely to pick the more expensive item.