This shouldn't make sense. It's like buying a car, and then you cannot refill unbranded gas at 1.5€/L, but at 5€/L at the official dealership. Same gas, car works exactly the same, but the car refuses to start it you put unbranded gas. No wonder the money is in the gas, tagging it at 500% the price it would get in a competitive market.
The mistery is why the printers market get away with it.
A more apt analogy would be selling you a laundry washer/dryer for $100 but only accepting name brand detergent pods.
Or, what Keurig tried to do to coffee, though even they sell the machines above the printers margins.
Printers get away with it because unlike your car, laundry, or coffee maker, most people don't actually use the printer very often and can't be bothered to raise a public outcry over it.
I get what you say, but never bought the cheapest-product part. Brother printers compete in price with any HP equivalent, is not like HP is selling laser printers for $20. Maybe a 15% less than a equivalent Brother, if that.
The big money. One could still wonder if there is room for a company only interested in a tidy small profit for selling the printers (perhaps at a more expensive price, but along with a "no locked inks", "no BS", "just works" guarantees).
