There's a conspiracy theory going around that the nonsensical pricing for Kindle ebooks is caused by a strategy from the big publishers to make the Kindle less attractive. Their worst nightmare of an Amazon monopoly on digital distribution is becoming more and more a reality. Setting the price for Kindle editions unrealistically high is one way to fight that.
And the retarded pricing. Its regularly at the same or higher as mass paperback. Unless shipping costs have turned negative thats just bullsht.