$665 is a bit too much for the specs they’ve offered. They should try to be price competitive instead of charging a premium. You can likely get a more powerful x86 system for less.
I would hope for these to be sold at cost, and doubt they cost that much. Profits shouldn't come from scalping risc-v developers.
I am hopeful some Chinese company will release something that will force some humility into the risc-v market. At least one candidate has been seen in the thread[0].
Not having reached enough developers and leading adopters means no market available except developers doing fundamental porting and experimentation.
Targeted at developers doing fundamental porting means no volume.
No volume means high prices. Low volume ASIC runs aren't cheap. Amortizing NRE costs of a complicated motherboard over dozens or hundreds of units ain't cheap either.
It will sort itself out eventually, but the whole ecosystem has a big mountain to climb to get to where ARM is.
