Yeah, the price increase is horrible even though it is logically understandable. The prices just ended up being out of reach for most of the sim-racers.
I'm glad I got my beta unit for half price of the pre-order price (which was 499.95 euro) since I was a beta tester. So I only payed 250 euros for my V2. To think it's 750 euro now... man I'm a lucky guy.
The same thing happened with the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 128GB I bought in October last year for 599 euro. Which has now gone up considerably as well to 1000 euro.
The economy is far from stable and it seems to change rapidly. If it's for better or worse... who knows? I only know it sucks for all of us right now.
Btw. I think the universal XB1 hub is the best thing ever. You can just put on whatever wheel you want, and add and remove as much buttons as you want or do not want. So no complaints here from me. Now if only I had an XB1.