After I posted those links, I started thinking about this since a subject about costs always interest me. (I have an accounting degree.) I always think about things like this a lot, but in my experience in buying gears, I've noticed a lot of expensive products (use tents and sleeping bag in this example) generally tend to be lighter. My theory is, product cost is one thing and at the retail level you can buy the same fabrics used in those products from $3-$10 a yard. At wholesale or directly from supplier? I have no clue about price variance. (that kind of information isn't laying around in the opening, ya know?) I think it could be anywhere from 20-50% lower than retail. I believe, the administrative costs and research/ development costs are a lot higher than the product costs. It takes a lot of practicing in developing these lightweight products. Experimenting with different fabrics, sewing patterns, creating baffles, etc all while trying to keep the weights and volumes at a minimal for the ultra light enthusiasts, if you will. While the lower end products (keep in mind we are talking about tents and sleeping bag) there is less work in trying to develop lightweight products and experimenting with fabrics, etc. And it is simply just mass produced for the common folks who don't demand ultra light gears.

Of course it all a theory and I'm sure someone else might prove me wrong, and say they are just prideful of their products and believe they can stick a price on it and someone will buy.