It comes down to Stern seeing that a few people were willing to pay flipper prices on an LE that sold out quickly. They decided to take that profit for themselves, and now EVERYBODY pays flipper prices to get the games directly.
And yes, it has influenced my game buying. Stern has decided that your buying 4 games Rai, is worth less to them than the profit of a single LE sale. They are capitalizing their market to generate the most profit. And only they know the formula to figure out if it will work out better in the long run. Personally I think it is stupid to piss off your good customers, but they think it is more profitable to do it that way.
(And yes, I think Stern loves pinball, and has been a great asset to the community. They just went a bit too far in the other direction. They will still have customers, just not as many because people like me require value from their money, and I can find better value elsewhere.)