I'm afraid I'm on the 'you are trying to compare apples to bulldogs' side here, SC's pricing schedule has nothing to do with the price of the game, you are BACKING the development of the game by pledging X monetary units, and as a reward for backing the game, CIG is giving you a special treat, what ever ship package you picked as your pledge level, which include various extras if you pledge early enough, some of those extras being removed if you pledge after X time frame(the new ship for example, Oct 10th to pledge for that and get extras like Lifetime Insurance, an ingame mini-model of the ship and an ingame poster of the ship, after Oct 10th, don't get those extras).
FD did much the same with the KS, CIG is simply extending the KS rewards through their continued development cycle, which is now over a year beyond the originally scheduled release date. They've also raised over $80 million US Dollars via this system and are actually considering offering their pledging system FOR SALE to other companies(damn good idea, they've done incredibly well using it).
FD has gone to a simple pay for the game system, more content in the future is also sold as a distinct and separate unit. What CIG will do once they actually go LIVE with SC is up in the air, it was supposed to be a Free To Play game after all, that may or may not have changed, I haven't seen or heard anything on the subject either way, but if it does indeed stick with the original F2P system, then you can bet that they'll continue to offer the packages they offer now for cash. You'll hear LOTS of Pay2Win complaints either way with SC, regardless of the fact that anything you purchase with real money can be obtained ingame via ingame money, you can see this with games like MechWarrior Online which offers early access to new toys for real cash and then releases them for ingame coin later on, also called Paywalling(a term used here no less concerning the Cobra Mk IV).
I'm not sure which system I actually prefer as a consumer, I've backed other games in the past without having anything but concept artwork on paper to look at, I've also played F2P games that I rather enjoyed without ever spending a dime on them, and some F2P games I've spent thousands on(like MechWarrior Online) simply because I wanted to show my support for the development team. I bought Elite Dangerous directly from FD, I missed the KS or I would have been a backer of that, probably a Lifetime, simply due to the nostalgia involved with Elite(I played the original in 84), much as I did with MechWarrior Online for that reason. I've purchased the Horizons package as well, didn't get the Lifetime because I honestly don't want the beta access and I'm quite comfortable giving FD $50 USD every year for the next expansion, that way if they do something I don't like, I can show my disapproval by not giving them more money, a vote that actually counts as opposed to whining on a forum
I'm waiting to drop money on SC, I have members of my unit, SRM, who have dropped a lot on SC and they all say the same thing still, wait, don't buy in yet, it's not worth the money at this time. They always add that caveat, 'at this time', because they see it becoming worth the money sometime in the near future, so I'm waiting for their go ahead. They are friends who know what I enjoy and I trust their advice. They aren't as interested in Elite because it's less social and PvP based than SC is, and that's their main focus(mine too usually), killing other players, Elite is an exception for me.
Two very different marketing strategies going on with Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous, you simply can't compare those.
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