Quality materials, nicer fit and finish, no obnoxious blue LEDs...

> no obnoxious blue LEDs...

:) True! But for $10 I'll live with it.

Then again, not everyone wants the same thing, just like some people value their annoyance much higher than others (making a more expensive purchase actually turn out less expensive).

People are weird. But that is fine.

To me, the AirPower mat seems like a really hard thing to make. Qi charging needs concentric coils, but AirPower as a Mat needs a reconfigurable matrix to do what it needs to do.

A piece of color matching electrical tape does wonders.

well yeah but applying electrical tape to a product does kinda ruin its aesthetic in almost all cases don’t ya think

Another option is nail polish. It comes in plenty of colors and you can add a thin layer of polish to make the LED dimmer but not totally blacked out.

There's a reason you find a matching color and cut the smallest piece that covers the LED, I haven't seen any aesthetics ruined by tape if they already have an ungodly bright blue LED indicator.

I have a set of various colors of electrical tape. If the color is even close to the same, you can't even tell it was there unless you are looking for it.

Quality, QA, Design, Branding.

That is like asking why are people buying lightning connector from Apple where there are cheaper options.

That's branding 101. Conspicuous consumption, perceived quality due to marketing, brand loyalty ... quite a few reasons.

Same reason people buy $1500 plastic Louis Vuitton handbags and belts.