I am a Sig, Glock and Beretta armorer (haven't been to the HK course yet). Also, I have carried just about every make and model of short and long gun either for personal CCW or into harms way (Afghanistan and Iraq and some other places). For long guns, I loved the Sig rifle (552) we carried on a protective detail. I am NOT an M4 fan and would carry and "acquired" AK whenever possible. Also, the HK MP5 is tough to beat.
Now, back to the handguns...
HK pistols are well engineered, wonderful pieces of equipment. The P7 was expensive to manufacture with the squeeze cocker and all the parts. I had several over the years. When the USP first came out in the mid 90s, you could get them at reasonable prices. In the late 90s when the Euro was established and immediately was worth more than the dollar, importing HKs became more expensive almost over night. If you add in that HK would rather just deal with military and LE than civilians, there was no desire to drive prices down. I lived in Germany and went to the HK headquarters to be qualified on the MP7 and was told by the HK reps that they wished they wouldn't have to deal with civilians.
Ahhhh, Sig...my duty weapon...in the 90s, you could go to a gun show and buy a NIB Glock for $400, a NIB USP for $500 and a NIB Sig for $500. Now (before craziness) you could go to a gunshow and buy a NIB Glock for $500, a NIB USP for $900 and a NIB Sig for $900. Crazy and frustrating. I know guys at Sig. They claimed the same Euro transition price hike in 2000. Then in 2005 when the Euro soared, Sig raised prices again, claiming the import cost of guns and parts was the reason. Now that Sig is making the guns completely in Exiter, they haven't lowered any prices. Not only that, they are using MIM parts now. In my opinion, the quality of Sig has gone through the floor in the last 10 years. Ever since the Kimber guy was hired to run SIGARMS (before Sig Sauer took over SIGARMS again), Sig seems to push out more crap than ever. Scorpions, Extremes, rainbow finish, diamond plate finish and the list goes on...
Somehow in all of this, Glock has kept their pricing remarkably stable. They have the manufacturing process down and keep costs low by not having 50 variations of each pistol (ala Sig). Not only are the Glock pistols less expensive and haven't inflated in price over the years like the others, but their accessories and mags are more affordable too.
Now Beretta. I am a big fan of them too. They have also kept their prices stable and their accessories aren't as bad as HK and Sig.
Gotta appreciate Glock. They aren't perfect, but no company is.
Just my .02