I don't disagree. In fact i agree that nVidia is not profiteering but is taking advantage of the position they're in.
I also don't disagree about Creative Labs, but the fact their market evaporated does show how unreliable hardware can be.
That kind of business can be and usually is unstable. Compact Discs came and went within my lifetime. What was once an amazing breakthrough in sound quality and a leap forward, became a novelty coaster. Once a sign we're living in the future, now an unwated medium for sound storage. DVDs are an offshoot that lived on but soon enough people wont want them for their collections anymore.
In that period where CDs and CD players were a thing, companies had to spend on research and earn as much in return as possible. It looked for sure like the CD was here to stay but amazingly it went the way of the dinosaur. That's what i meant by "rake in the cash". It's not a pejorative. It's an imperative.
The cost of not earning enough in profits to cover losses, is going out of business. Of course this is obvious, but it is also repeatedly ignored.
Many of those who complain about prices of GPUs ignore how much it cost research and design them. Manufacture may be cheap but the logistics behind organizing that manufacture, and the shipping of resources in and products out is anything but. The brains who manage and organize it are not working for peanuts either. That's part of the cost too.