The way I see it is that $5 is the bare minimum that they could charge for this. It could be free I suppose but the real question is how many people would buy if for $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, or $6. I assume that the $5 price point is the best in terms of profitability to the company. Theory 11 is a company as well as a community. They offer free web hosting for video's free forum's. These things are not free They are costing someone (JB) money. The idea of a company is to make money they (T11) offers us all these things at a cost to themselves. Someone pays for other fourm's as well, however members will often donate money to the site to keep it operational. I see these 1on1's in a similar light, I will not buy everyone of them but if I see something I like I will happily give the $5 or so just to learn the effect because it will help the group. I understand that it will also help JB and Joel aswell because they are the ones who are making money from it. However, Joel could have kept believe to himself, Wayne could have kept control to himself etc. They choose to sell these effects at a very reasonable price knowing that most people will take them seriously however a few people will butcher them, or worse make a terrible 3 minute youtube explanation.
It will be very interesting to see what happens with the clipshift if it really is going to cost $50. That is a move that is created amazing hype ever since trilogy. Granted the hype is warranted as it looks amazing and has been shown in real world environments. But I believe that at that price point people will seriously respect the move. Back to the original topic, yes the cut is not that special (in my eyes). Is it worth $5 probably, would quantity sold match the loss if it was made cheaper, probably not. Essentially it all comes down to supply and demand and at $5 I think it is a very good mid point.