A long time ago one of the car magazines did an article about the need for a $1000 new car. (I TOLD you it was a long time ago, lol). They came to the conclusion that there wasn't much of a market for that because you could get a pretty nice used car for that price.
I think a less-expensive entry level pattern plane might run in to the same problem. There are used pattern planes out there, in good condition, nearly fully equiped and even trimmed for $1000. That's the route I took when I decided to move up from Sportsman.
At the Sportsman level the learning curve is so steep that the airplane itself isn't as important.