For clone kits, no doubt Lego have some licensing costs, but £3-400 per set on bigger sets? Titanic has zero licensing costs. Same goes for design costs, Cada, Pantasy, Mould King, Reobrix etc are paying designers for original IP and are still a lot cheaper than Lego original IP.

I've got 2x Reobrix 8 stud wide cars and 2 x Mould King 8 stud wide cars in the backlog, all 4 are boxed (in higher quality boxes than Lego provided) with manuals, all 4 shipped from China for ~£30 all are original IP. The Mould King cars even come with display cases!

I've also got a Reobrix T6 shuttle waiting to go, around £120 shipped (shipping price varies through the year, it's high ATM), it's been highly reviewed, it's by a known MOC designer who got paid, 5k+ pieces.

I'm eyeing up a Baka Rocinante at the minute 6k+ pieces, shipping is high so it'd be £150 or so shipped, but that'll likely come down. I've not built Baka before but some of their other sets look phenomenal. Their Rivendell is stunning looking (and not a clone set).

I'm not saying Lego don't make a good product, but they are taking the micky with pricing - just look at the price of the X-Jet, £80 retail and under 500 pieces.

Edit: as for the bricks being knock-off I'm not sure Lego a a leg to stand on in that regard, they're clearly a knock-off of Kiddicraft bricks.