Perhaps you might consider what a small company Ketron is, compared to giants like Yamaha and Korg and Roland... Even though they are all based in Italy, YK&R benefit from synth engines and sample libraries developed by their parent companies in Japan. That drives down production costs bigtime, something that Ketron are unable to do...

Economy of scale makes a HUGE difference...

And, don't forget, you aren't comparing apples to apples. It's not like PA2, T3 or E80's can play audio loops as part of the basic OS. If they could, then perhaps we would be justified in expecting the Audya's price to be in line with YK&R. But as it stands, until the Big3 come out with arrangers with similar capabilities, Ketron stand alone. Not only the more expensive arranger because of capability, but also because of cost of production...