Not everybody can see $400 worth of value in an intake, and I can respect and understand that. But just like what was stated, there are cars that run significantly higher mod costs. I'm not the kind of person to say that someone has to spend lots of money modifying their car, but for me the cost is definitely worth the product. Others may not feel that way and that's ok.
Many members have whined and complained about this and the Cobb intake not being released early on, and then their first response when released is that it costs too much. Unfortunately both cost and quality have the general tendency to run hand-in-hand, so it's up to the end user to decide if it's worth it to them. You don't necessarily have to pay-to-play, but in a lot of situations you get what you pay for.
I remember when people were raving about the Injen intake. It was cheap and available and people were swearing by it-even so called 'experts' were writing glowing reviews and recommending it to everyone that would listen. No one seemed capable of posting datalogs to substantiate their claims, but they could all 'tell' it was so much better. Fast-forward a couple of months and people were building boxes to shield them from the heat, complaining about lag from a stop, or outright selling them off.
This is the type of intake that gets sold because the car got traded, not because it was a poor design.