Wait, I'm not sure that's true at all but I do think there's an interesting question there.

Brother has a whole bunch of monochrome laser printers from $120 up to $250ish depending on if you want duplex printing, wireless, document scanning, multiple paper trays, etc. From what I can gather they're all well-regarded? HP, Canon seem to also have decent offerings in that price range though based on a totally unscientific review of scanning Amazon ratings it seems like people like the Brothers best.

I think it's just an issue of inkjets versus lasers.

Inkjets are just horrible. Every single freaking one. Why are they so bad? The ink cartridges always dry out and stop working unless you print on a regular basis, and they all have some weird predatory business model based on selling you a bunch of ink that you don't need. It feels like they lose money on the printer and bank on you buying a bunch of ink later on.

So how did monochrome laser printers in the same price range avoid that weirdo predatory business model? That's my question. I can't really imagine that a laser printer is any cheaper to manufacture than an inkjet printer.