I remember William Osman (who established Open Sauce) talking about how they manufactured the badges for the convention, which are mostly just one large pcb, and how they looked into having them made in the US but there were no companies even offering the same kind of service. So it is not just that the Asian suppliers are cheaper, it is also that there isn't really a competitive US made alternative even if you were willing to pay more for it.

Here is the link to the episode (without a timestamp): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78lYvjo2JQ

And this is how the badges looked/worked: https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/tutorials/2025/assembling-y...

Yep. And if you go to Shenzhen, some shops will take on varying amounts of board design and prototyping for you. It's possible to get boards fast and for cheap, like less than a few days and even cheaper when the goal is larger quantities for semi-serious products.

For a few hobby or toy things, the fixed rate board stuffing shops are the way to go.