Why so expensive??

Expensive = elite limited, an ostentatious display of profligerate spending on something totally unnecessary => it goes back to the basic male drive to demonstrate wealth, accumulate resources and power, and to differentiate versus other males (this may continue long after being happily married, as it is programmed into our very nature). This drive is primarily in order to attract females, however, the drive can become perverted when men build audio systems in basement caves - as it does little to attract females in this case(generous behaviour, attention to children, boats, luxury cars, big houses, social status rank much higher with females in terms of evaluating men). It is the same reason that multi-millionaires want to become billionaires...they must satisfy their drive and can't stop, as it is in their nature.

Why is oil near $100 a barrel?

This is why.

Now back to regular programming......

If you can afford to buy this stuff, most likely you are buying it for the looks and the good sound is just a perk (IMHO, of course).

Agreed. The big effort goes into industrial design. The other challenge is to market and sell perhaps only 50 models ever and to provide 10 years of support for parts. The advantage is that the cost is probably negligible compared to the price (perhaps 5% may be 10% max) - so the markup is huge when a sale occurs.

The end result is more akin to rare and high-end "art" than a purely functional instrument to reproduce music. Sound reproduction is clearly secondary, just as keeping time is not the primary objective of a Rolex (although they pretend it is) => primarily it is jewelery/fashion/image/life style apparel.