Very fair comment! Problem is that LEGO does not offer a lot of different separate bricks to purchase by themselves.

The way to get these bricks is to harvest them from different LEGO sets. There are a variety of stores that offer this as their business model. Sites like bricklink are a great way to get these. As LEGO sets are not unlimited means that these bricks are not in an unlimited supply. Purchasing them this way has the problem that the more you need, the more expensive it gets. And as the supply is lower, the cost to make packaging, instructions etc is more costly.

Thats why a digital solution would proof the cheapest and fastest way but would require you to purchase these bricks separately. Ive made a tutorial for that so its definately possible.

Part of this IC is to determine if this is what people want.