Off into the wilds we go
Particularly on the second point, WhyFi gets it right. Relevant to this conversation, the only way you'd get to a favorable margin while keeping a "low" price for the consumer with molded plastics/composites (ie the pedal body or cleat) is volume...which loops back to the demand part of the relationship I mentioned. That level of demand just doesn't seem to exist for the factory Speedplay stuff, and the demand for knock-off or clone pedals/cleats, even if it were magically 60-70% of the cost, would be less.