I think that tbihl and bebna are trying to say that it would cost Samsung less to defeat the attack by programming one of the listed countermeasures than it cost the CCC folks to buy one of these phones. (I don't agree.)

That is exactly what I meant. Like you're probably thinking, my estimate IS an amateurish one, taking into account no business admin/healthcare/etc. But I remember implementing this (as a small part of a project) at a time when I couldn't be bothered to put more than a few hours into any project. At any rate, I can't explain their failure to implement these checks, because they're SO trivial.

You're agreeing.

Yeah, well, in that sense, the cost of the S8 was also higher than the hours the researchers spent scrubbing toilets to develop this exploit.