I'll agree on this one, plots/lairs have become luxury priced when they were changed from maybe a couple 100s to a 1g minimum, which yes, would deter new players from starting with a plot sub (in fact, I try to spread the idea of buying a plotholder sub when you are actually able to work on it, and only work with basic access up untill that point, simply because it has no use to have a plotholder sub for atleast the first 30-40 levels.)
A quick look on Bristugo.com shows me that the cheapest plots go for 1g 131s, and the cheapest lairs going for 1g 340s, why not ease up on those smaller plots (I'm talking Kion, Parsinia, Bridgeview, Sslanis and part of the Dalimond Peninsula) that people...are propably not going to keep anyway once they get a larger sum of coin? make them go for 200s or something, so that they're still a pain in the virtual wallet, but not so much an insane grindfest.
as for why the plots are going for so much, the only thing that comes to mind is to be a money sink, which wouldn't make sense since you get, what? 80% back if you sell straight to the community manager?
Oh and Anzha, another small tip would be to find a guild that owns a guild plot, that way the lairs/plots only cost 1s, but only in the region of the master guild plot. ^^
-edit
I'm with Arzel here, a plot should only be rewarded:
A) for cash.
B) for crafting.
@Elt I think the total amount of plots is near 1750, checking Blight which is pretty much dead, on bristugo.com gives me roughly that number.