Same for me. I was expecting like $1200 for the base model which nobody should pay that much for such middling specs.
But still $1k is way more than I'd pay for an HTPC. I'd much rather the steam link approach and use streaming to my already nice and powerful desktop. I guess this is a nice thing to point newbies who want a box that should "just work" and don't already have something and don't want to build.