Serious money indeed but I wonder what my wallet would have said if the weather and real life allowed more of my main hobby/interest, rc helicopters. A single battery pack costs the same as a low end HOTAS, like real low end. Even my trainer cost me more than the X45 I bought an eon ago.
Now I have the X52 Pro + pedals. It's a fine stick but it's getting old with a microswitch starting to fail. I REALLY could use button boxes too. What made me decide on these high end sticks was partly because they could be extended. For heli use that really comes in handy. The 52 is a tad short for really fine adjustments, or it's just me being heavy handed
Last, no I haven't registered on their site, to my knowledge. I have tried to limit the forum activity or else I'd need a book full of UN/PW for each. My memory is shot to pieces and having to keep track of all those passwords becomes a nightmare.