X58 boards are expensive yes, but it's fair to say that there's a reason why. The X58 chipset as such is not exactly basic with the sheer number of PCI-E lanes, triple channel memory controller and as I understand the power regulation on these boards must have to be fairly strong for these 130W TDP CPU's. Combined with the fact that Intel is well aware that there is no true Core i7 competitor that they are free to price their CPU's and Chipsets accordingly. That being said, I don't believe that the overall i7 adoption cost is so bad these days with the price of respectable DDR3 kits taking a nose dive and more "budget" friendly i7 boards like the EX58 UD3R making an appearance.
I see prosser13's argument with regards to AMD boards and I do recall my legendary DFI LanParty UT nF4 series motherboard that at £90 would reach high base HTT's in excess of 300MHz but the AMD nForce boards were historically cheaper than Intel equivalents like for like. I remember the Canterwood 875P boards sitting around the £100 mark but that was ever so long ago and ever since I recall the higher end 925XE, 955X, 975X, X38/48 boards all exceeding £175. The X58 is no exception.
I do however like what this £160 motherboard acheives and think it's a fantastic buy if you believe that you can take advantage of the perks from the Core i7 platform but have a restricted budget. Excellent review W3bbo