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It's a bit like guitar players. Some people think you buy a guitar and that's it. Except modular is worse, far worse ;-)
-- Arrandan

hahahaha

Also being a guitar player, I'm not so sure that modular is worse!!!

there's a 1st crappy acoustic guitar, then a crappy electric and an amp, then an upgrade (probably for all 3), then another upgrade, then another electric and a hollow body and another electric and maybe a 12 string and some pedals along the way and more pedals and a pedal board and another amp and then upgrade the pedals etc etc

and then a bass and an amp and maybe some pedals for that etc

and suddenly you've got 6-10 guitars, a couple of amps, 10-20 pedals maybe more, probably a keyboard or 2, plus some recording equipment and other rack gear.... which could easily be way, way over 20k... possibly nearer 30... and that's with standard factory built guitars and amps, and no exotic hard to find pedals etc... start going towards an actual custom built guitar (by a named builder from a major manufacturer) or a desirable 'vintage' guitar, a hand wired point to point amp (or 2) and even a few unobtanium pedals and you could be over 30k just for one or 2 guitars, a couple of 'good' amps and a dozen or so pedals

and don't even think at looking at 'classical' instruments - like cellos - anything above a beginner model and you're talking thousands... and then there's the bow - more thousands... or a piano...

my ex used to not bat an eyelid at a couple of grand for a guitar... but couldn't understand why modules were often hundreds each... but she was really only accustomed to buying FMCG (as many people are) - clothes, shoes, consumer grade audio/visual, white goods etc - which are made in the hundreds of thousands if not millions and has never worked in retail or business...

but modules (and cases) aren't anything like FMCG - they're niche components of a custom 'professional' grade musical instrument... they're very low volume - the biggest selling module (Maths) is probably under 20k units in total... over 15 or more years... and most are probably in the hundreds or very low thousands in total... and made in batches of 10s or hundreds... and yet they still have to be designed, tested, refined, built, stored, shipped, retailed etc etc all of which adds up... and in a lot of cases are the same or similar costs as FMCG but have to be absorbed by a fraction of the sales.. which obviously drives the price up...