With today's pricing there is a reason that the 580 and now 5500 would be called low end. Gone are the days of 199 max for low end 249 max for mid grade and 399 max for high end. The 2080 is $1000 the 2080TI is $1400 and 5700Xt are over $500 here in Canada.
Inflation plays a part. At the height of ATi vs Nvidia market competition 15 years ago, the mid-range sweet spot was a $200 card, which is $270 in 2019 money. This mid-range price point was a nice round number so it stuck around for a good few years as ATi and Nvidia jostled for the performance crown at each price point.
With entry level cards being $99-149 (eg Geforce 6200), and flagship cards being $399-499 (Geforce 6800 and 6800 Ultra) we can adjust for 15 years of inflation to give three equivalent tiers in 2019 prices:
Entry level:
$135-200
Mid level:
~$270
Flagship:
$550-675
If anything, the cards that the vast majority of people buy are cheaper than they used to be in relative terms. At the upper end of the market, prices are about what they've always been, with the exception that "Ultra Flagship" is now an additional tier on the Nvidia side which never used to exist (and still doesn't for AMD) as Nvidia now make and offer non-consumer silicon at to consumers with a gaming driver at eye-watering prices.
2080Ti cards aren't even close to a fully-enabled product. They're the most-damaged, defective, heavily-scavenged, and downclocked leftovers of the Quadro RTX server/datacenter silicon which sells for at least 4x what a 2080Ti does. Still, it's a win-win for nvidia because $1000+ is better than thowing that defective die in the trash, and enough people are willing to pay those prices that this isn't a one-off stunt any more. Need I remind you all of the $2400 pair of Star Wars cards a couple of years back?
