Which country are you in? I'd be happy to pay up to £1500 for one in the current environment. Prices of lots of things have gone up significantly over the last few years. The Sanwa was priced at around £600 - £650 I think when it was still available. And when you consider manufacturing cost and low volume, £1500 would be pricy but I could see it being necessary to even make a profit from it, for them.

But yeah I agree with the ergonomics statement, I found that I shook less when I was holding the KO, weirdly. Although there are others who prefer the wider grip of the Sanwa I'm sure. In an ideal world it would be nice to have one transmitter with several different cases that are different thicknesses for different shape hands.