Ah yeah, taking a quick look they look reasonably built. Might have to listen to a few samples.
Well I mean, it really depends what you're doing. I do a bit of recording, and a lot of live playing. To even get close to what the Helix can do, the GE1000 doesn't even do half of it for a third of the price (but looks like it has a go).
Helix is a professional-grade unit with a lot of power, so you pay for that privilege. I can setup a complicated chain of FX and then have snapshots to seamlessly switch between them (with trails) at a footswitch. Anything with less DSP will have noticeable gaps while trying to do the same thing (as it has to unload and reload the FX). If you look at other brands (Headrush, Fractal FX, Fender Tone Master) for the same sort of product, they're all within that price range.
So yes, the Helix is crazy expensive, but it's also a crazy expensive product to design and produce, and it's aimed at people who need crazy expensive quality (and usually have money to justify crazy expensiveness).
I spent USD$1800 on a Canon camera and lens which are great quality. I could have gotten another product from Canon for USD$550. I could still take great photos, I'm sure, but it doesn't have a lot of the features or do things quite as nicely, and the images wouldn't come out quite as well as they could.