I often wonder if one day my tongue will get stuck in my cheek 
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It is funny… seems like you could make a (very small) killing (for a while until you got completed out) selling finished RPi based endpoints with meh DACs for $400. Make some snake oil claims about how your power supplies are blessed by both shamans and rabbis.
In all seriousness, though, it is surprising to me that there isn’t a Schiit endpoint or other budget way in to Roon hardware without assembling a bunch of stuff. Same kind of go’s for nucleus - feels like someone could create a competitor at a lower price based on ROCK. But this is not my line of work.
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Yes and no. There are a number of options from “proper” manufacturers that do just that (the Bryston BDPi is one example, it’s a RasPi with a HifiBerry hat, a screen, and a nice PSU, in a nice case with the appropriate warranty and retail markup (so over $1000).
Once you’ve gone through the expenses to make that happen, I’m not sure how much you make.
This said, there’s definitely space for a good industrial designer to make nice looking cases for the various Raspberry options, alongside easy to follow guides on how to snap 'em together. Sell case + a pre-burnt card, kick back the OS maker, and you probably have a business. The downside is you’re then in a business relationship with audiophiles, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
I’m surprised as well. I’d wager Roon Ready-ness takes time and money. I’m even more surprised that the more progressive brands, let’s say Shiit and JDS Labs haven’t gotten in the nice Pi case business, and I’d guess there’s probably a very good reason to that.
You do have a few pre-built options (@ALLO_audio_boards and @Orchard_Audio come to mind), but the industrial design seems like the work of spastic two year olds, and the websites that sell them the endeavour of the four year old, on the spectrum, older brother. Clearly, nobody explained to whomever did those that normal people don’t know the difference between Volumio and DietPi, and, as they should, don’t care.
You’d need to licence the OS / rights to RoonServer from RoonLabs. Some have straight-up distributed ROCK illegally, and some (SGC and more recently Mytek come to mind, but there are others) have provided legal Roon Server options. They’re open to it, and it was one of the ideas behind ROCK.
Manufacturers do not need Roon, but Roon does indeed need the Manufactures, so I fail to see why w manufacturer would want to pay extra for something they don’t need, or why Roon would want to disenfranchise manufacturers by charging a licensing fee. NAD obviously doesn’t think Roon is a necessity, or they would have done what is necessary to get the M33 and a couple of other models certified as Rood Ready. PS Audio doesn’t think Roon is necessary in upcoming product. They’ve already announce their upcoming streamer will not have Roon. And, the number of Roon Ready models from all manufacturers pales in comparison to all models available. If Roon tried to charge a licensing fee, they would be shooting themselves in the foot. Believe me, if Roon thought that a licensing fee would be beneficial to them, they would already be doing it.
…or maybe you are being impatient and jumping to incorrect conclusions. Here is an email and screenshot from NAD showing M33 being Roon Ready:
and here is the M33 on our NAD page:
https://roonlabs.com/partners/nad
That makes sense since their founder has publically stated that they are making a competing product to Roon… Although I’ve not heard any more news on that front for a while now (year+). Maybe they are getting close?
I stand by what I said. The M33 was introduced in March 2020. If it takes them thirteen months to get a model certified, especially a high end model, then they must not think it a necessity. A benefit? Yes. A necessity? No. One reason I have eliminated that model from my proposed upgrade path.
I see that the M17 is Roon Ready, and then when I click on the link leading to that device it shows that it’s not sold anymore. What about the M17 V2?