I also have a feeling that $200 was where most users will draw the line. $500 looks like such a slippery slope in the field where all the recent SOTA models, including Chinese ones, are considered good enough for most work.
They've since taken down the 20x usage mention on their pricing page. https://archive.is/bCZav
If OpenAI can show that a $6k tool nets $50k in productivity or quality or speed they have no problem selling it. Companies will take the easy-but-expensive option over a cheaper alternative. The problem is that's really hard to measure and seemingly they've put no effort into trying.