I agree the price tag is a bit much for me as well. However, what is a severed finger/hand worth to you?
The fact that you have to replace the blade/safety mechanism if it does trip stinks, but how much $$ would you be spending in medical bills otherwise.
There is no way to really put a dollar amount on it, even though the insurance company actuaries do it all the time. Anybody know the going rate to cover a lost thumb?
This looks like airbag technology. Right now it is in it's infancy. Once the big name companies decide that they can afford to include it on their saws and maintain a particular price point, the economics of scale will drive the price down and at some point even cheep saws will have it built in and everyone will expect that as a standard feature on any saw.
Of course I'm sure there's the liability to the companies that if someone does manage to hack off a finger while using one of these because the mechanism failed to operate correctly, that person is going to SUE.
For the time being I will keep my utmost respect for what my table saw can do to thick hardwood and realize that my thumb is nowhere near as hard or tough. It will be an icky offcut almost instantly if I forget the potential of the machine. Even those using a saw-stop equiped saw should assume it doesn't have that feature. Kinda like handling a gun like it is loaded at all times.