at one point was available for even less

As was pointed out already, only when SB was trying to dump their inventory fast.

feature rich competitors from other manufacturers available at reasonable prices. New.

Doubtful. I have yet to see anything that comes close to the empeg functionality, except for maybe buying a Karma and rigging it to go through your head unit. Even then it doesn't have hierarchical playlists yet.

but then I'll just buy something else and we all live a happy life.

Yes, but ours will be happier!

Seriously, this unit is well worth over $1,000, even used. And you won’t have to pay that.

Also, you should consider if you really need a tuner or not. The reason they get so expensive is that they are fairly scarce. I don’t have a tuner and I haven’t regretted it one bit. In fact, if I’d bought one I’d probably be upset at having spent the money. As it is I have a second head unit I can use for radio which I tried briefly about a week ago and just found out it’s broken. I hadn’t used it in the last year so I don’t know when it happened, but now it only works very intermittently. The funny thing is, I could care less!