Agreed. My biggest regret is that it is so expensive to build an ergodox, even if you want to do the soldering yourself. Otherwise, I'd build a few for my keyboard-conscious friends.

To put my claim into perspective, the cheapest way to get an Ergodox in the US is at Massdrop for 200$ + shipping + assembly. If you live outside the US and pay import taxes on that, it will cost you around 350$. There are people in EU who try to sell ergodox parts themselves (falbatech.pl) but the price will not get down by much.

The people I've spoken to recommend both cutting the plastic case yourself (or using no case at all, some have done that) and ripping the Cherry MX keys from older, cheaper keyboards, but that is currently beyond my possible time investment.