You miss my point entirely. The cost to produce a gallon of paint to a specific color requirement is, essentially, the same for any given binder system (in this case, acrylic). Of course, the cost of a hobby paint as distributed is higher: those small bottles, even if they are plastic dropper bottles, cost  money, and it takes more time & money to fill and label each one. There are also issues of quality control and formulation. Then there is marketing. But 1745% more? Not hardly.

That said, a good hobby paint has a shelf life of decades, especially if stored in glass (the experiment with plastic dropper bottles is still running). That is high quality, which is why I chose a premium acrylic interior/exterior house paint for comparison. Is the mark up justified? That depends. For some brands, absolutely not. For others, still not justified, though they certainly come closer. I knew someone who produced a line of hobby paints of excellent quality. His prices were just as high as others, perhaps higher. They were some of the best paints I have encountered, both personally and professionally. My only complaint of them was that they weren't shelf-stable for very long, but that was due to the fact that they were metallics, and he chose a poor product container. He went out of the business, I don't think he sold the formulation (nobody would meet his price.)

So I don't waste hobby paint. I pay their price for quality, and I can afford it. A poor quality hobby paint is not worth the label on the bottle. In terms of cold, hard cash is a high quality one?—but in terms of user satisfaction and lack of frustration, they are worth it. But I never waste them, and I'm seriously P.O. if I'm forced to do so. It's not a rip-off if the customers are happy.