GrimCo
Hero
Those look cool. Better quality and more durable than cardboard, that's for sure.Oh no, not CNC'd lol. Woodcut laser. Like these
USB drive is just spitball idea. One other idea we used back in the day instead of dry erase mats. Laminated paper with printed grid pattern. It's pretty inexpensive, in most copy stores, A4 is around 1-1.5 euros with discounts on volume. 9x12 inches? That about A4 format. 2 laminated A4 are probably price wise same as one A4 pvc mat, but give double the surface. Sure, mat looks nicer, but this also works.I can find USB drives for $1.40 each. So not a huge cost impact to the end boxed set (the most expensive item is the box itself). Dry erase can get spendy though. The best I could find are 9x12 sheets for $2.13 each. A couple of those can increase the costs more than being comfortable with.
Your box set looks very nice, but yea, that nice wood box is probably half the cost of whole set.
Point, at least in my opinion, of box set is to give you all the basic tools you need to play in one convenient package. Once people start playing then they can invest in better minis, better grid mat, more shiny dices, hardcover rule books with nice art etc.