Behind the scenes, please remember that Raspberry Pi was hit by it’s own popularity. If you want to keep it at the same price level (leaving scalpers out of the picture for the time being), then you need to wait until chips become available.
For other manufacturers, which do a much lower volume, it is easier to come by these chips.

The situation is hopefully going to look much different by the end of this year.

Raspberry, as far as I’m aware is not using the Pandemic “as an excuse”. But it is communicating that there are silicon shortages. Which are *still* real.