What do you consider expensive?

I think that question is in your court, since you're the one complaining about expense.

Personally, I've found price and quality to be completely unrelated as far as whether I like the keyboard I'm using. I recall being given a fancy expensive keyboard at work that I hated and swapped for a cheaper nicer one, and the one I've used for many many years at home and like quite a lot is one I literally fished out of the recycler.

Also remember to factor inflation into price comparisons, since keyboards last many years and everything is more expensive now than it was several years ago.