There are two reasons why the motors are so expensive:

1. New technology is always expensive.
2. R/C is a fairly small market.

To manufacture something as sophisticated as brushless motors and controllers in the relatively small quantities R/C modelers use, it's very expensive. I think the brushless motors we use are hand-wound and hand-assembled. The controllers have to convert DC electricity to 3-phase AC, and contain sophisticated programming that is necessary to make the motors actually function. All this is not cheap.

If you compare a typical brushless controller to a high-end brushed controller, the price difference really isn't all that great. It's like going from a 2-stroke .46 to a 4-stroke .70.