Probably cheaper than solid steel, enshittification strikes again

Deceptive marketing. The 80 lb model is the budget model, but the picture shows the much fancier 300 lb model.

Yeah, they switched production methods in the 90s to save on manufacturing costs.

Back in the 70s they were made from solid steel

Solid stainless steel at that weight would be roughly 17 cm per side (assuming a cube), depending on the exact alloy.

There's no perfect reference scale, but the diagonal width of the cube is 60% the width of the drawer (by pixels). My kitchen drawer measures 40.5 cm, so the cube is some 24.5 cm across diagonally. A 17 cm cube would be just over 24 cm. I did a lot of rounding at every step, but it seems to check out pretty darn well.

Ever seen the inside of an Aero bar?