Some people don't believe me when I tell them I've owned a home computer, with peripherals, that cost more than a new car of the same model year. Not just one, either.
When you started adding storage, a modem, daughter boards, etc., it got expensive.
You're not kidding. We sold truckloads of Kaypro II systems to college students because they were cheaper than the several thousand dollar IBM PC equivalents. Kaypro experimented with various bundles that included different word processing software but very few people had a preference of Wordstar vs Perfect Writer.
The only controversial part of any sale was the printer housing; because at the time our local professors would not accept anything printed with dot matrix we sold bundles that included a daisywheel printer. People thought we were upselling by telling them they really needed a foam-padded printer enclosure. Spending two or three hundred more on top of an already expensive purchase was often too much so people would skip the enclosure. They were usually back in a week or two looking to purchase the printer stand.
When you started adding storage, a modem, daughter boards, etc., it got expensive.