Sony are no doubt very keen to put the cameras in front of potential buyers, and they no doubt believe the products are good ones. However, particularly in respect of the a7r there has been quite a volume (putting it mildly) of contentious opinion disseminated on the web.
The makers are in a better position to know but it seems likely that such opinion may affect sales of such products - this matter not being restricted to Sony, of course...marketing managers must be a tough bunch generally. Price reductions are one way around the issue to some extent, so it may be a sound marketing move by them. They have a long term interest in a wide adoption of the FE 'system' in this early development stage, as do (happy) users.
For users with an interest in image quality as a higher priority than satisfying their particular idiosyncratic ergonomic preferences, a comparison with their current camera's output would (you would think) play well for Sony. I see this message repeated again and again in forums.
If you look at a breakdown of the (well-engineered) a7/r bodies, there is not a lot in there compared with the large volume of 'wrapping' in a typical DSLR, and what is there is mostly electronic components which benefit from volume production to a much greater degree.
Sony are of course chasing the DSLR segment of the market, not just mirrorless. Feedback from B&H sales and the promo there will provide valuable pricing data - where is the sweet spot and how price-sensitive are buyers? What is the optimum trade-off point between price and volume? These are brand new and very different products, a true niche product right now, not much is known about these issues.
I am pretty happy to pay the 'early adopter surcharge' for the big leap in image quality the a7r brings to the thousands of images it has pumped out lately. If I divide the gain in IQ by the # of images, it's pretty affordable! But I remember film buying and processing and the costs associated with that.
I'd like to see accurate sales volumes like we all would. Price reductions are a good sign, and we all benefit from this kind of 'deflation' in time. ;-) The other makers, not so much. Sony is a strong competitor, not to be underestimated.