It all comes down to two things - the cost of an artisan's time and hard-won skills/knowledge and efficiencies of scale.
People like Vinnie Fodera and the Alembic builders simply are not in large supply. What they do is incredibly painstaking and requires both finely honed skills and the patience of a Zen monk. They are also incredibly dedicated to what they do. They are building what are, in some ways, Faberge eggs that can actually be used for a practical purpose.
Secondly, in any field of endeavor, the larger the company, the more cheaply it can make things. As an example, Fender buys more wood in a week than Fodera and Alembic will in the length of their existences. Not the same woods, to be sure, but volume discounts exist in every business. And the small builders are one hell of a lot pickier about the woods they buy, which they often age themselves. That amounts to one H of a lot of money sitting in the drying shed.
The hand-finished, artisanally-built best of ANYTHING is ALWAYS expensive: Ferrari sports cars, Dunhill pipes, Wilson Audio Specialties loudspeakers, Audio Research, Lamm Industries or VTL electronics, Zegna and Armani suits, Rolex, Vacheron-Constantin, or Patek Philippe watches. Bu their very nature such things can NOT be made in quantities that allow efficiencies of scale to become relevant.
The simple fact is that you can buy something that represents the labors of a mass number of people cheaply but if you want something that represents the work of only a handful of master craftspeople, it is gonna cost, and big time. Not everybody has the desire for a Rolex, a Ferrari or Wilson's speakers and wouldn't spend the dough even if they had it to spend. Fine. But that's no reason to disparage their work, or that of Fodera or the other high-end luthiers.
Take a chill pill.
Just insecure people.
