FWIW, the debate about USB audio may be irrelevant - the write up on newsshooter says that they plan to add a dedicated 3.5mm ltc time code port and 3.5mm mic and headphone jacks.
Overall, it looks pretty cool to me. If they really can deliver it at less than $1k, I’ll likely be a customer.
Do you mean technical parts like the chips etc? If so, maybe they're out of stock and no longer being manufactured, so would be practically infinite in cost, rather than cheap.