$1500 USD. Good lord, no thank you. This is actually just too much for something that has its bases covered by phones and a laptop. You can get some serious portable and studio kit for that money.
Its priced appropriate unfortunately. Where mixers run $10-40k, and 16 channels of preamps can run upwards of $5k. They are going after a niche pro audio market that has the rare ven diagram needs of form and function
My old Mackie 1604vlz didn’t cost nearly that sort of coin. True it wasn’t neve or ua… but it had very quiet and clear pre amps and more than enough channels and routing. For $350 used in the early 2000s.
I don't think that makes it bad.
Just built to a price point that makes economic sense.
And for market segments where $1500 is not a non-starter.