This is actually a sentiment that has been going around the pc community for a while now.
PC devs blame the lack of tech progress on consoles. 

We still don't know what it will cost etc.

but if it makes the console 450$+ yeah.. they should have downgraded for affordability

They're buying in mass bulk. Wouldn't $450-475 be a bit more realistic? Even still, on top of shipping, advertising etc, that could indicate another $599 price.

It isn't
It is quite cheap - People don't have a clue about prices and anything at all.
And Sony is probably getting mass discount too.

The PS4 in its parts is damn cheap - 300-400$ or lower if you would buy the pieces on your own.
Sony is paying less than that.

Only haters with no clue think its expensive.
But when you hear the console is destroying PCs and is easier to develop for than ever and is going to deliver best graphics for a long time it is worth it.
Or do you want a PS4 that can't handle crap and is outdated and maxed out 1 week after you buy it and won't get 3rd Party Support?
The PS4 is a console that is worth the price and won't cost anywhere near the PS3 did - It will be the strongest console ever created for a damn cheap price if you compare its power to it.
Sony is doing everything right - People should stop hating and jump on the right train before they ride into the wrong direction to Fitness or no-support land.

So would you please enlighten us with actual prices?

dangerous move one natural or human tragedy and the entire 8GB GDDR5 @ this bandwidth became nightmare

Would 4gb of GRRD5 and 4gb of DDR3 have been a better idea?

Might a bit overkill, but it'll pay off in the long run. Most devs working on the system seem happy about the RAM.

Some Tweets:

Tiago Sousa ‏@CRYTEK_TIAGO R&D Principal Graphics Programmer at Crytek. Worked on Far Cry, Crysis 1, 2 and 3 + all CryENGINE iterations. "8 GB unified mem as baseline for next tech iterations makes me very, very happy. Fun times coming ^_^"

Johan Andersson ‏@repi Rendering Architect at DICE working on Frostbite and future DICE/EA games. These are my personal views. @Lt_Kernel "we really do like the PS4! that is all I can say :) lots of memory is essential for both the CPU & GPU to create large & alive game worlds"

John Carmack @ID_AA_Carmack: "I can’t speak freely about PS4, but now that some specs have been made public, I can say that Sony made wise engineering choices." 

475 is in the spectrum of "about $500" to me, but I think it'll be little more than that.

@bolded. Absolutely no way in hell. Shipping is a tiny cost and all the advertising in the world isn't going to sell a $599 console well, especially in today's economic climate. At 599 the price would be too high for most consumers -> crap consoles sales -> crap software sales -> tiny profits if any -> crap third party support - PS4 early grave -> Playstation's demise. That's the worst case scenario. Although PS3, which was a 599 console, would of actually been financially successful if not sold at a loss it'd still be last place, lost unbelievable marketshare and still wouldn't of been particularly profitable, and that was released when the Playstation brand was at it's height; it's now at it's lowest point ever. 

I want to point out that some customization to the CPU can improve latency issues, or am I wrong?

Also any chance that the secondary CPU will utilize its own RAM? It's the CPU that will be doing the background downloading task and I'd guess that video buffering too, maybe? They could throw in some small amount of DDR3 for that couldn't they? Unless its best to keep it customized and part of the unified pool.