[toni-a]

Whatever we see as retail price, the production costs are probably far less than 50% - the rest is R&D, marketing, transport, manufacturer profits and dealer profits.

This explains a new tendancy after COVID and Ukraine War: raw material are becoming scarce, so production must be decreased, dealer profit per item must increase to cover its running costs, shipping prices have increased too, it doesn't make any sense anymore to manufacture cheap items. Don't expect to see cheap lenses coming, there will be nothing but super expensive lenses and even entry level items will be overpriced.