Cost of Vista

Can someone please explain why Vista in any version cost is so high, 60% of
all devices used with XP wont work with Vista, I upgraded to Vista from XP
now I have to spend moree money on a fax program cause you only get it in
certain version of Vista, my usb flash drives wont work with Vista no
support, this puts the cost of Vsta well over $250.00 for upgrading, so far I
have not seen anything better about Vista over XP, I would return it to the
store but then you cant do that once its opened so then you spend more money
shipping it back to Microsoft wait weeks for a refund, I meen realy how much
money is enough?