Echoing the article and what another response said: "It’s quite expensive, but if you think of the board as a vehicle, I think it’s a wise purchase."

I'd definitely think of it more like a scooter or a bike. I used to commute by bike a lot and wouldn't flinch spending $900 - $1200 on a commuting bike, but my bike also completely replaced my car, so money saved on gas, repair bills, parking, etc was well worth it.

I imagine this is the kind of thing that would only be worthwhile to most people if you're really going to integrate into your lifestyle as a primary mode of transit.

There are obviously a lot of ways this is different from a bike but a few that seem important to me (mostly compared to a bike, and this is all pretty subjective and just my opinion on how it looks):

Pros - If you don't push at all, less (almost no?) effort to get where you're going. Possibly less sweaty. - More portable/compact (than most bikes); not having to stop to lock up a bike seems pretty nice, especially if you have a bag you just clip/slide the board into.

Cons - Battery life; bikes don't have batteries, and while you're putting more energy into a bike, they make super efficient use of that energy if you have a geared bike - Last I checked, the board couldn't be used in the rain; not sure if that's still true. Seems like it'd be more difficult to make this your lifestyle if you live somewhere it rains often (this is a big one for me) - Terrain; this less than the others, but there are a lot of obstacles I can deal with smoothly on a bike with large diameter wheels that seems like they might be annoying on a board

as always, ymmv

A Loaded deck alone would cost that much. Yeah it is pretty expensive. But factoring in parking costs, taxi costs, muni costs, time, etc it's definitely worth it. I think about it as a transportation vehicle, so it's more in the league of a scooter, motorcycle, nice road bike. Perhaps the price will come down with time, but as of now I think demand is well exceeding supply.