$700 is actually probably a fair price for a PS5. You can't really build an equivalent PC for less than that. $900 to $1,200 would probably be close to how much manufacturing the PS5 Pro costs.
But PSN subsidizes these costs, which is why these systems can be this "affordable".
IDK. Between the price tag and lack of the disc drive IDK how many people are gonna buy this thing. It's probably just for people who HAVE to have the highest graphics, to keep them from getting a gaming PC until the PS6 is ready for them.
I've seen videos of both. For the record, I hate seeing the beatings, but campuses aren't playgrounds for wannabe political activists. If they don't want people staging protests on their property, even if it's a public institution, they have a right to have those people removed.
Perhaps there are smaller and more innocuous protests that you're witnessing, but the large ones are pretty disruptive, which is part of the reason why they made the news.
I'm pretty sure that would run you about the same as the external component, so there's no benefit to going with a third-party accessory