Most online "gamers" are teens or college students, just by nature of demographics. I feel like people who pay for their own RAM (likely 18 or older) would be more likely to feel this

I think your head would have to be extremely deeply in the sand to think that. Gamer's Nexus has been doing extensive and well researched videos on the results of ram prices skyrocketing and other computing parts becoming inaccessibly expensive

And it isn't a $300 surcharge on DDR5. The ram I bought in August (2x16gb DDR5) cost me $90. That same product crept up to around 200+ when I last checked a month or two ago, and is now either out of stock or $400+.