[PunchyHamster]

You're paying for brand and the fact they make key exfiltration very hard.

Getting the key out of rpi4 will be trivally easy if someone stoles it, not so much for hardware key.

I am surprised that competition didn't kept them in check, we're using them for more than a decade and the price just keeps slowly creeping in.

[layer8]

Run-off-the-mill smart cards have had non-extractable keys for decades. They only cost cents in manufacturing.

[bigfatkitten]

In raw materials, yes, but a lot of people were involved in developing and then conducting security evaluations on the MCU on the card, as well as all the software that runs on top, and those people do not work for free.