Things that will affect the price of the shoe:
1. Research and development costs
2. Cost to get the goods to market (raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, etc.)
3. Promotion of the goods
4. Demand for the goods
5. Supply level for the goods - something that I haven't seen on this thread yet, but it is necessary counterparty to demand (which oddly, seems to be half the posts in the thread). The last thing to consider is the number of providers in the marketplace. These shoes are still a pretty new thing, which is definitely growing. As more companies enter the minimalist shoe sector to capture some of that growth, some mid-market players will have to differentiate on cost. (Example: someone without Nike's R&D budget, say Sketchers, wants to grow in this sector. They can't really differentiate on design, but they are capable of producing something "good enough" and have the scale to sell it to the mass market. You could see them making a big push here as they look to grow their athletics segment). Right now, if it is true that there is no lower price point option, people who want these shoes are stuck either paying for the real thing, or walking away. There is probably money left on the table for the people who are choosing to walk away, or the people who know the price is too rich for now.
I haven't seen too many exists from this market, so my guess is we'll keep seeing newer and cheaper models for at least the next 3-5 years. You will probably be have a number of cheaper options in that time frame. You'll never get to the "Wal-Mart" quality / price shoe for a long time, possibly ever, because there just simply aren't going to be enough people interested in the shoes to drive enough volume for a player to manufacture those shoes, unless minimalism becomes the norm for the casual athlete / kid / person