Once you factor in shipping of the computer itself, and a case for the Rasp Pi ($20 or so), the price difference is actually quite small.
Practical builds of this aren't going to be below $200 (and that's assuming the price quoted in the ET article is correct).
You're right about no case, but this unit also requires shipping.
I stand by order of magnitude.
I don't know what the plan is, re: non-volatile storage. I guess you could plug in a USB memory stick (v. cheap), or use the PCIe headers.
Makes me wonder how cheap Intel could make a computer, if it really tried, though. I guess profit margins are the only thing stopping it from building something cheaper/better than the Rasp Pi.
This product is of a different class. You can't have fancy I/O like Thunderbolt and USB3 and compete on price with RPi.