It's a trait of a certain market of quirky and unique high-quality devices. E.g. the Dirtywave M8 music tracker was sold at 650$. But they also provide the software freely, and one can diy it on a Raspberry Pi.

Teenage Engineering, who designed Playdate, have most of their products rather ridiculously priced. E.g. the portable synth/sampler OP-1 costs 2000€.

TBF I have a Chinese handheld for emulators, and discovered online that the screws on it are positioned such that the heads can pierce the battery when it swells. This was after the battery completely died in a year of disuse, so I was looking up replacements.