The price you pay for items takes into account the countless hours of R&D, the cost it takes to actually run the facility it's being produced in, the cost of the equipment being used, insurance costs (workplace safety) and the cost of employees and their benefits, I could go on and on... This is usually why American, Canadian or Australian made products are expensive. I'm not saying this justifies some of the prices we're seeing on today's market (lots of it has to due with supply and demand or market ownership), but being a senior level manager in the manufacturing environment I can appreciate what it takes to actually produce a quality product from design to market.
Hell, equipment can run way past the $750k mark (ask me, I know from experience lol). I'm going to use ARB as an example here, because they posted wonderful videos about this. As for the DYI stuff, yeah the materials are going to be cheaper so your cost will be cheap. You don't have overhead costs and your time is essentially free, because you're not going to pay yourself by the hour or for benefits, etc. Just my two cents.
You also don't have to buy new. Used products are obviously cheaper, you can get out into the woods in your overland rig for less than $300 if you buy what you NEED on craigslist. Money isn't a gatekeeper, the perception that we need what the $150k rig on youtube has is. The whole kit doesn't need to be flash, nothing wrong with some good old cast iron off the craigslist for cook kit, and old coleman for 10 or 20 bucks, for example.
Buying "knock-off" is also going to be cheaper than buying Brand Name or Overland specific. Those facilities which manufacturer the "knock-off" product don't have R&D costs, likely pay a poor wage and don't have benefits, for example. The quality of the product you're getting will also be inferior.
