It's not likely that both Nvidia and AMD wouldn't have data on how much demand there is for their products, and thus want to fill that demand. There has to be an underlying reason for the lack of stock.
I think most inventory on the CPU/GPU front goes to the OEMs/system integrators instead? Alienware has a system with a 3090 in it for roughly $2700 after all coupons, which technically isn't that bad of a deal as you are getting a 3700X, PSU, case, RAM, SSD, etc for that $700.
Likewise, the few people that interacted with ExtremePC, some of them said they bragged about having hundreds of CPUs on hand, but wouldn't sell them directly unless you agreed to outrageous shipping costs.
To me, it feels like the DIY market (which has likely grown in recent years) is only getting the "left overs". Even if there's a lot of bots/scalpers, you don't see a huge amount for resale either, unless there's a black market out there...
