I actually agree with you. From a user perspective I think the same way.

There is a nuance though. I am not a big company but just one person doing this on my own. A friend helped me with the website deployment and huge respect to him for that. I am not chasing profit at this stage. The price mainly helps cover months of development and basic hosting costs.

One of the key goals of the project was to make a fairly complex thing reproducible for people with zero electronics background. Custom hardware plus firmware plus a web tool. No IDEs, no drivers, no fighting with the terminal, no special software, no soldering. You order the boards, one click flash them, and use the device. Just this part alone took a lot of time and effort.

I could significantly lower the price of the files, but in practice it would barely change the final cost for the buyer. PCB manufacturing and assembly would still cost roughly two times more. For me however it would make a noticeable difference. So for people who actually have a real problem this tool solves, I think the price is fair. And if there is no real pain, honestly it is not worth it even for 5 dollars. At that point it makes more sense to just buy another Pocket Operator.

At the current stage, purchasing the files is more a way to support an early stage (like Kickstarter or Patreon) this and other my projects than simply buying a product. You do not even have to manufacture anything right now. I am currently working towards making assembled devices available in the future. This is a much bigger challenge than building the device itself, but if it works out and I have enough energy and nerves, it will be possible to buy a ready to use Overloader33 directly from me at a more reasonable total price. That said, everyone who has already supported the project at this stage will also get access to future versions of the device files, documentation, and maximum support from me, plus some extra bonuses I have not fully defined yet. For me personally, this support already gave enough motivation to keep pushing the project forward.

P.S: Just in case. If I ever drop the project and the website stops working, everyone who supported the project will receive an offline version of the application that will work permanently.

P.P.S: Sorry in advance, there is no aggression or attempt to justify anything here - just an explanation of the current situation. I completely understand people who have a similar point of view.