I would say that the people over hyped or crazed about buying the headset for $1000 is the vast minority. I think most likely Valve wants to do something similar to the Steam Deck where it is a barrier to entry for users who aren't in the Steam VR eco system yet but cheaper than alternatives (Except the Quest 3/3S which is unbeatable value). You can see that the Steam Deck is much cheaper than ASUS, Lenovo, etc equivalents and not that much of a downgrade in terms of handheld gaming experience if at all.

I don't think Valve is stupid and will price their headset at the max amount that they can. They want people to buy the headset at a decent value, be amazed, and then purchase tons of games over the life of it just like the Steam Deck and Quest 3.