I think he's just using the wrong date range.
2012 things had already matured.
2009-2010 eReaders were a lot more expensive.
The "Kindle 2" in 2009 launched at $360.
So basically by 2012 prices had tanked, and there's a limit on how much cheaper they could actually make them in the years since.
This - the Nook Simple Touch was £29 in 2013 - https://pomeroy.me/2013/05/review-nook-simple-touch-ereader-...
Was (and still is) a great epub reader - I still do most of my ebook reading on it. Same that Libby won't work on this version of android as I'd love to read current magazines on it.
I think I wanted to say elsewhere in the thread, but probably did not, that my first Kindle was $35, brand new from Amazon. No keyboard but it did have hardware buttons for page turn at least. It lasted until I ran it into the back of my heel backing away from my desk in an office chair, and amazon gave me $15 for it toward a new kindle, which were on sale the week I broke mine because a new kindle was being released, so my new kindle cost $45, but was originally over $120 new, if not $150. Paperwhite.