I am surprised at the degree to which consumers here are bending over backwards making excuses for bike manufacturers.
It is very much true that bike prices HAVE escalated significantly over the past 5-odd years - and that's not factoring in the current COVID-fuelled spike. You could get a very nice mid/upper end carbon bike with Ultegra for around $3000 at one point. How common is that these days?
To the question about re being new to America or capitalism: capitalism also works on the consumers trying to get the best price that they can for their products.