True, but to be fair Tamiya and Kyosho never were particularly cheap from what I recall
Tamiya's products have something some other brands don't. I must admit lately some half-ass re-releases are far off and unimpressive, but for the higher quality products it is really nice. I must say, the TRF201 is not the greatest example of that: It's a very nice car, but a car like the DEX210 has a nicer fit and finish of the parts for example. That said, I think of the Rear motor division of cars, the TRF201 is easily the best looking of them, parts quality is very good on the mechanical front and the Tamiya manuals are just the benchmark to me. As for the 4WDs and onroad cars, yeah... there you can see why they're so expensive: They are that nice!
Though some cheaper cars might be fine mechanically, they are an eyesore compared to the TRFs, the manuals are bad, material feels (and sometimes is) low quality, etc.