That being said, chips with that kind of pricing have always been the exception. Chip crisis and inflation must have driven up prices even further. I remember when a flagship DAC was maybe 12 to 20 bucks, like an AD1955 or PCM1794A still is. Mind you, you can't expect an 8-channel DAC that's about as good as they come to be cheap. (ES9038Q2M / ES9039Q2M may be a better comparison point.) The AK4499EX / AK4191 combo isn't exactly a bargain either.
These prices post chip crisis are silly at times. Basically the ADC + DAC on an Asus Xonar D1 - CS5361 and CS4398 - are now worth more than the entire card used (at least around here where they generally haven't been selling for more than 20€ in years and at times a fair bit less, and back in the day they were like 55-ish new).