$45 will probably pay 1 programmer for about 1 hour of work. Imagine that there were dozens of programmers who worked for years on this project! Software is unfortunately expensive to produce.
if it went to the software house it might be diffrent but as it is the store takes a cut, the distributor takes a cut, the publisher takes a cut, then whatever is left goes to the developer. that is why independant software housesare dying on the vine. this is also why there are few inventive titles available.
unless you make publish and distribute the games youself you don't really make any money. musicians are in the same boat. i wouldn't mind paying more if the software houses saw that money. however in most cases they don't. :-(