This is surprisingly common. Mechanical parts (HDMI's tiny pins in a high-precision injection moulded body) are expensive, while it's now very cheap to just stick some chips on a board.
Not at all. Complete brand-name HDMI connector assembly costs 29 cents in 10K quantity. [1]
[1] http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Amphenol-FCI/10029449-11...