This makes me wonder if there are any exceptions, things that brains didn't name. Onomatopoeia seem like a good starting place (and maybe ending place). Did we name cats' meows meows or just hear them and go "OK, that's what that is then"? Cat brains didn't name them that either, they weren't thinking what they should call the sound they make, they just made it.
As far as things which name themselves, I can't think of anything else but sounds.
Yeah, this is pretty standard. Between the low production numbers and the fact that assembly is probably occurring in a country with stronger labor laws than wherever mass-producted hardware is made (mostly China), it's going to cost more than something you can pick up on Amazon or AliExpress.
There have been a few cases where open-source hardware like this has enough demand to get picked up by a Chinese manufacturer who makes a cheaper version through some combo of unethical labor practices, production scale, employing cheaper or cloned parts and/or dropping features, so it's not out of the question that a cheaper version comes along, as long as you don't mind the compromises to get it.