@robryk it's a business strategy. I bet the profit margins for the lowest tiers are too narrow to be useful, but is used to get initial customers.
@Demosthenes Are you saying that this strategy precludes the existence of such sanity checks, or that this might be an example of such a strategy?
I would doubt the latter in this case: the product costs ~1$, and you're really unlikely to be buying <10 unless you are a hobbyist.
@robryk I'm not sure what the piece is. If it's an electronic that could potentially go into a product, then it makes sense. It lures hobbyists(who are often the developers and engineers) into trying out their product, then the profit is made when they decide to scale up a little bit if they liked it.
Idk if that's what's going on here though, I don't even know what the product is.