I don't disagree really, but I think being made in USA, on a smaller scale and using higher spec parts really does add up.
Talking used prices here, but I paid about £2k used for my BE100, the 20W amps and Runts go for about £1000 used. If I were to source my own parts for one of those circuits it wouldn’t come out much less, and it would still take someone to built it. 20W Marshalls are maybe £500-600 used, the 100W vary depending on model and year (DSL/JVM can be dirt cheap, Jubilee reissues are £750-800, 1959SLP/1987/£900-1000, 2203x £1500, vintage ones a little more). I think the used Friedman prices are in line with that at least.
The fact Marshall and Ceriatone can build them cheaper doesn’t mean the boutique brands are necessarily a ripoff - they just have different margins to work in and certain compromises may have no bearing on how the user feels about them.
The Ecstasy below costs nearly £5000z
The Bogner Ecstasy 20th Anniversary Head lives up to it's name providing pure tonal bliss from it's 3 channel all tube design.
www.guitarguitar.co.uk
SLO100 is £4000, JP2C and Mark VII are over £4000 too. Two Rock and Magnatone are on another level beyond that.