Cost optimization IS the limits of the technology. All the nice things you mention are the result of large amounts of work by exceptional people. This costs money. Most of them require higher-spec components, or more design time, or more complicated fabrication and assembly. These things also cost money.
Nobody's denying you nice things at low prices just out of spite. Nice things just cost more. To put a positive spin on it, our innate sense of 'nice' is a well tuned heuristic for good engineering (and/or whatever the Joneses can't afford).
I've had the opposite experience. I find that LIFX bulbs fail far too often considering the price tag, however I've yet to find anything else that can match up to them when they work. So I just keep buying them.
Save on their electric bill with cheap LEDs that get the job done, while worrying about more important things than if the bulb flickers sometimes when you dim it?
Nobody's denying you nice things at low prices just out of spite. Nice things just cost more. To put a positive spin on it, our innate sense of 'nice' is a well tuned heuristic for good engineering (and/or whatever the Joneses can't afford).