Those of you who think that any manufacturer's stuff is overpriced can solve the problem very quickly- don't buy it. Buy stuff from the company that isn't overpriced. That'll teach them.
Oh wait, there's just one problem. Quality receivers from all the reputable manufacturers are about the same price for the same number of channels. Hmm. They must all be overpriced. So you should buy the junky stuff from China, the Orange receivers that go for about $10. Yay China! They care about the American consumer and price their goods how they really should be! HobbyKing to the rescue!
But oh wait, no! Your plane just mysteriously went down because that junky cheap receiver stopped working. Now you've just learned the value of quality control at the manufacturing level and a warranty policy that encourages good products that work the first time. So maybe Futaba isn't actually ripping you off after all, are they?
The simple fact about electronics is that the retail price is easily 10 times what it costs to manufacturer the item. That conversation has been going on since the '70's at least. But then there is R&D to pay for, marketing, warranty, and quality control, not to mention rigorous selection and testing of components bought from other manufacturers. If a bad pallet of 5 cent capacitors makes it way into a manufacturing batch, a rash of failures follows. A reputable company like Futaba pays an employee good money to test samples from every batch of capacitors to keep that from happening. Do you really think that the kids working in the sweatshop who make those Orange RX's do that? Then there is the cost of having a good service department, which isn't cheap or easy. So yes, you can buy knock off receivers where a company has reverse engineered the Futaba design and done enough tweaks to keep from getting sued and then cut every corner possible to reduce the price. But I won't, and I don't think you should either.