Your "story" is so amazing - half the price of Cessna's attempt at the same thing?!
However, Cessna's variant does have a second seat and a fair bit more load capacity.
Q1) Could one sacrifice some pounds of baggage for a bigger pilot? I'm currently (sadly) ~240lbs.
Q2) Is there a single factor which dominates the huge difference in price? It appears the Cessnas were produced in the US, until they moved production to China - making (apparently) a ~$71k difference in labor cost! But they still are selling for $150k instead of the original target $110k. So is it labor? Materials? Design? Engine? I'm very (hacker) curious!
Q3) You mention the market being uninterested in "bare-bones" planes without radios, lights, navigation, iPod jacks etc. But while the "top tier" of those items are certain to be expensive, the "non-aviation grade" version of most of the sensors, GPS, radios etc have plummeted in cost in the years since the LSA category was created. An in-car GPS unit used to be $500+ minimum - now it is < $100 - with a bigger, brighter, higher resolution display, more CPU and map storage memory and fancy 3D navigation stuff to boot! Altimeter sensors are now basically "freebies" integrated into all sorts of consumer electronics. I find it disappointing (though unsurprising) that the aviation market hasn't pushed harder such that these systems are not such a major cost driver. Do you have any insight into why this is? Or have they really dropped in price, and a system which would have formerly added say, $50,000 to an aircraft now adds "merely $10,000?"