Also remember that 'round' (NiCad/NiMh) cells were price-controlled for over 25 years, and that price was kept artificially low in this country. LiPo cells had no price controls to start with, so they found their 'real' price level in a competitive market. Once that was done, there is a price control planned.
One advantage we have is that there are now so many competitors in the LiPo market that there is genuine competition to drive some price competition. 'Round' cells were the province of one supplier (Sanyo) for 20 years, and many markets had one distributor - controlling prices was easy, and there was no competiton.
When IB took the market over, their product was better, and so they had no need to sell at low prices. By the time they had ruined the NiMh market, and made the path easy for LiPo, a lot of people were willing to pay any money to get the convenience of LiPo, and we had to pay for expensive development and tooling costs to get the hard case, etc.
So here we are. Personally, paying just £100 for two packs that last two years without any maintenance is a bargain, not an expensive option. HTH
