Beyond the Kia issue, my original point was mostly about people complaining about the pricing of the very top trim... newsflash, the top trim of every single vehicle out there is always a lot more expensive than the starting price of that vehicle. There's no difference here with what Kia's done with the Sportage and what Honda does with its CR-V... both offer a low to mid $20k base price, and max out just before $40k. Complaining that the top of the line is too expensive just doesn't make sense to me.
And of course, add to that the infamous "for a Kia" qualifier, and that doesn't help things. As far as I'm concerned, if you're still using "for a Hyundai/Kia" as a qualifier, you haven't been following what's been happening over the last few years in the car market... ie. you're ignorant.