Is it just me, or are almost all of the microcontroolers in that "top 1000" list from Microchip? If so, that doesn't seem like a very representative sample.
Track mips/watt/$ and ram/$ along with forecast lines. If design with $3 part now, I'd like to know that it will drop to 1.75 in 2 years.
I find it rather ironic that filtering by price in product selectors is new and or rare. We exist in an economy predicated on cost efficiencies, where many of my designs are driven primarily on a price-point, part selection is an iterative process where cost absolutely plays a role and often the first one.
I suppose it is much more common to ask "what is the cheapest thing that can do foo and bar" rather than "what we can get for x dollars"
Boolean satisfiability allows me to meet a design criteria, derivatives allow me to innovate.
I would like to predict when full blown linux can run on a single chip (on die ram and flash) for less than $2 or below 10 mW. I'd like to be able to track when thresholds are crossed or a combination of features exist at a price point.