And that's the important part. Nobody's going to pay $1500 for something that makes cooking easier. They'll appreciate it, but they won't pay for it. Lot's of people will pay $1500 for a gadget that makes cooking better.
People who are passionate about cooking tend to do it for more people than just themselves.
It handles baking dishes up to 11"x16".
Most family size single-baking-dish recipes are sized for a 9"x13" baking dish.
> And it can only cook one thing at a time so wave goodbye to roasting veggies while the meat cooks.
While I suppose for some people a countertop oven might replace a full-size oven, most of the target early-adopter market for expensive kitchen gadgets is going to have a decent size kitchen with a full-size oven as well as any countertop oven; the features this has might reverse the traditional "large oven is primary, countertop is secondary" arrangement in those households, but I don't think most people in the early adopter market is going to be using this as their sole oven (though, I suppose, if you were particularly price-insensitive, especially if you already had a cooktop separate from a large oven, getting two of these for a dual-oven setup would be more space efficient than most dual-oven setups.)
And, for those who find a turkey a less-than-stellar example for whatever reason, a 12-pound turkey is a lot larger than a roughly four-pound roast, which (with various different marinades and preparation techiques) is the base for lots of ~6-8 serving main course recipes.
There are lots of people who cook turkey only on Thanksgiving, but it is far from true that no one cooks turkey except on Thanksgiving.
So? The target market of early adopters for high-end kitchen gadgets are willing to pay pretty high premiums for unique features. (And aren't people who could replace their existing set of appliances for $1500; they're more like the people that spend close to half of that on a high-end VitaMix blender alone.)
(whelp - after checking, it even seems that the Miele oven I had in mind as a reference point is over $5000 in the US)
Selecting common recipes from the console is a fairly common feature even in inexpensive microwaves and toaster ovens. Moving that to a phone app isn't really much of a comparative selling point, and its cheap and easy for existing incumbents in the market to replicate.
Onboard identification is much more of a unique feature. Sure, it adds quite a bit to the cost, but -- as long as it remains relatively unique -- it probably adds more to the appeal and potential selling price than to the cost.
The first popular countertop microwave oven was sold in 1967 at a price that is equivalent to about $3,500 now. New tech in appliances is often very expensive; the early adopters (as in many fields) are people that aren't very price sensitive if there are new features that aren't available elsewhere.
Anyway, a countertop oven that can handle up to 11"x16" baking dishes isn't too small to cook a family meal, so even if your premise was correct, its not really applicable to the device in question.
Obviously, to power the food identification, analysis, and cooking program recommendation system that makes it a "Smart Oven".