alt Hacker NewsI'm pretty sure this has already happened to LEGO. That's why it is so expensive now, they want their nostalgic core audience to go back and buy more with money. And they don't really sell random 2x4 brick assortments, they sell nice looking models with all sorts of specially shaped bricks that are hard to reuse for any other purpose.
FWIW, there are knock-off brands on Amazon selling collections of assorted Technic pieces for quite a bit cheaper than Lego. The colors are off, but the quality is pretty good.