Ceric: You bring up a good point. Look what good engineers can do for $100. Create a functional Laptop. Pretty amazing.
Sure it is completely basic, but hey sometimes you just want a Laptop that can do the essentials for you...and if I could get that for $100 that is what I will buy.
Now bring that logic to the Revolution.
Hey I want to buy something for my family to play with. Here is a game system for $399 and on for $150.
Sure the $399 is going to be better. Potentially lightyears better. However, I have $200.00 to spend. By default the other system is too much.
Now, lets go into depth of the Revolution and see what it can do. Oh, it has pretty graphics better then the current generation games. It has a unique controller to create original content and games. And it has a business model that embraces cheap quality gaming, instead of higher production higher cost business model.
I guess the point is...it is amazing what you can get for you money when you have talented engineer teams working together. This is important because your money should not be spent wastefully, but should be carefully measured and the product should fit your personal worth for it...and a fair market price for it.