People, you need to consider a couple of extra things about Ryu's inflated price:
1) Ryu is the propery of Capcom. He don't come free, and I doubt he come cheap.
2) Ryu comes with a new stage. A stage is priced at $1-2 in SSB. So when you subtract that, Ryu's price is right in line with everyone else's. And unlike the others, he's completely original, both in terms of debuting in Smash for the first time and having his own moveset.