This is the 2nd time they raised the price of Xbox consoles this year. You can guess why.
Xbox Series S 512 increased to $399.99 from $379.99
Xbox Series S 1TB increased to $449.99 from $429.99
Xbox Series X Digital increased to $599.99 from $549.99
Xbox Series X increased to $649.99 from $599.99
Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition increased to $799.99 from $729.99
Processor architecture was always the same for console refreshes into cheaper slim models. It’s the massive slowdown of manufacturing improvements or nodes that is preventing price cuts. Processor architecture only affects new generations of consoles and premium versions like ps5 pro.
I did not mean to imply that the architecture changed in PS2 slim compared to the original PS2, only that were able to make better, cheaper, cooler, smaller versions of that same architecture.