They are expensive because:
1. Land Rover stopped production in 2016...
2. in the USA, they are becoming very rare, so they are almost classic to the off-road/Overland community
3. Simple Demand...people will pay for them, cost be dayum'd.
4. It is possibly the best 'modern' Land Rover model...the one that didnt move into being a luxury status-symbol vehicle like the rest of the line-up.
5. IMHO, its also the one LR model that wasnt plagued with the many assembly line issues that many of the other models had.
I always wanted one also...i owned a Discovery I back in the 90s, and would drool over the Defenders everytime i went in for scheduled maintenance at the dealership.