For food, the value inflation is quite extreme IRL as well ...
The contents of a frozen pizza, for example, are like 150 g flour, 40g tomato extract, three slices of something meaty, plus some chemicals stabilizers, flavoring, flavor enhancers, hardened fat, acidity regulator and coloring. I highly doubt the manufacturer pays more than a few cent for the basic material; the finished good (admittedly including costs for haulers, and a cooled food stockpile) costs well over a dollar.
Stock cubes are said to be a gold mine for their manufacturers, with a huge profit margin way larger than most other foods: Shred and boil low-quality meat that's close to rotting, add chemicals, press into bricks.
And for rather extreme value increases, visit some high-class restaurants. True, they buy choice raw materials, but the sums they'll charge for some of the rarer foods are outrageous. There's people who pay $50 and more for a simple steak-and-salad main course, so I can totally believe a dwarf forks out Hundreds for that "Giant Cave Spider Meat + Quarry Bush roast" :-)
... but, yes, food is overpriced in DF; it seems slightly unfair or out of balance when a stack of quarry bush roast sells for like 50.000 dwarfbucks and even simple meat roasts (with a master cook) will nearly always fetch 1800-2500.
... Dwarf traders got over 80.000 in Offerings alone last year, and they sell steel plate.
But, sorry for the food rant, back on topic ...
I was pretty annoyed when ...
a) I spent two evenings building bridges and walls, believing I'd be able to shoot Goblins at that wall with like a ballistic trajectory.
(The wall was like 8 levels high, with a channel underneath so any splattered goblin would've fallen into a goods stockpile ... if any goblin had been splattered against the wall.)
What happened instead: Goblin steps on pressure plate, walks onto bridge, bridge raises, goblin is now under the bridge. Bridge closes, Goblin gone without a trace (= atom smashed).
I couldn' get my bridges to actually throw anything ...
b) ... in the middle of a siege, as the bulk your army is stampeding towards the enemy, you suddenly realize that your crossbowdwarves are still wielding the -Copper Warhammers- they'd been melee-training with.
Luckily they also wore chain ... only one marksdwarf (and a Macelord) died from the goblins' bows.