I don't think the fork is expensive at all - given how much we pay for mass produced forks from mature companies with a wide range of products. SRAM and Fox can amortize the cost of their high end forks over the 10s of thousands they make every year, in factories that make 100s of thousands of forks. Subsidised by the 100s of thousands of other forks they sell into the OEM.
It's more crazy that we pay so much for Fox and SRAM product than the fact a boutique builder with unique solutions charges E1800. After exchange rate and removal of VAT the fork is under $2100CAD. Pretty crazy - isn't a Lyrik Ultimate MSRP at $1650CAD? I know they don't sell at that price but again, that's the mass market vs the boutique. Even at a 'street price' of $1300CAD for a Lyrik Ultimate, I don't think it's that big of a mark up.
I'd support that mad engineer in a heartbeat if I had the money.
He's the guy that in trying to find environmentally friendly packaging to protect his product came up with the idea of using non stick pan scourers. They protect the fork and are reusable, unlike most packaging materials. Way 'outside the box' thinking. It's a shame we're so locked into MY cycles and incremental changes year after year that his products seem too expensive.