I'm super into mountain biking, and never bought a new bike in my life. The last one i bought was the most expensive bike i ever owned by a long shot, it was practically new and it was like a third of what it would've been new. Dude who sold it said he likes it, but it was bad for climbing, because it was too heavy. He showed me his brand new bike. On the way home i thought: so the carbon bike with aluminium swing arm is too heavy? So i looked up his new bike, which was like £8000-£9000 pounds and was roughly 600 grams lighter than the bike i bought off him. Bike prices might be insane, but i often feel like it's the people's own fault. Cyclists buy absolutely everything no matter the cost it seems.
My friend told me that his boss saw my ebike when i bought some bread and had to get one himself. He's an out of shape baker, and he bought himself a 10k e-ountain bike. That's more than i paid for my ebike, my downhill bike and the enduro i ride almost daily.