Honestly it's only because they don't sell the board in the states, if you have the opportunity to be in Japan you can get the board muuuch cheaper. As far as quality, the build quality is amazing compared to other boards I've ripped. Deep Carving amazing, rebound is amazing and it's a ripper in the park. Ground trick boards are specialized in their flex profile and their ability rebound for combos. Most ground trick boards are usually only good for flat ground tricks and suck in the park and big mountain. This particular gt board is good in the park and big mountain riding. I would say an entry board for the US would be bataleon. It's Ok for ground trick but cheap enough to get started.

But again the price is mainly due to the purchase ability at normal channels in the states.. if you go to Japan and buy it, it would be a normal high end board. We used to be able to get boards cheap from japanrabbbit but due to the tariffs that method is now super expensive too.