Actually >$1000+ is not cheap.
Not to me anyway.
I got nothing against Sony. (But in USA, a lot of people got angry when Sony tried to put copy protection (that secretly puts something in your PC or affects your PC in some way) in music CDs without informing customers and without the OK from USA regulating body. They got hell from the USA Govt and the US public.)
It is an excellent brand, for TVs especially.
Their way (you say like chicken rice selling) is good.
They inform the public of what price to expect.
So people make their choices.
But personally, will prefer Canon digicam SLR, since got EF lenses already and no need to buy again another set of lenses.
Actually did not buy any digi SLR yet. Quite put off by rapid new models creating obsolescence for the models sold 2 years ago.