Agreed, there's a lower bound set by the other available tech. I didn't do the best job articulating there. In the context of the thread my objection is that the economics of the finished product aren't the issue.
The problem is arriving at working knowledge of the tech in the first place. But that's clearly not a logical impossibility, merely expensive and dependent on lots of surrounding factors.
The obsession of a single rich elite, not economics, is precisely how much of early chemistry came to be.
If you want something truly revolutionary, try the modern horse saddle and horse collar (and bit).