$45 extra for ISO?
You can do ISO with just R3 1u, R4 1u, ISO enter, Shift. But instead we have 4 keys for the same spot and the <2 key which doesn't really have any functionality. My suggestion would be to move 4 ISO keys to basekit, and move any combination of the keys below:
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In ISO, the extra 2,3 and left to "1" and 2 different R3 is not needed.
No. It's $140 for a kit that supports the most popular layouts and pleases the most people (inc. some novelty 1U keys for the WKL/HHKB users), and $45 to accommodate less common layouts.
The designer has carefully thought about this division in kits, and bundled ISO, ortholinear and "boring spacebars and arrow keys" into it's own kit, and perhaps leaned slightly towards giving HHKB, 60% and 65% users what they crave without needing to get the extras kit. That makes more sense than putting the bare minimum ISO keys into the base kit at the expense of HHKB/60%/novelty keys.
IMHO it's a refreshing change from having to subsidize ISO users in every GMK base kit I buy 
I kinda have to disagree for a few reasons, and that's not because I dont understand what you are saying. I get that you feel you have to subsidies others (whether you put an emoji in there or not), and that keys that get 'little' usage in your opinion shouldn't be included.
Firstly, this secondary kit, at 250 MOQ, is never going to reach its target unless somewhere like Assdrop steps in. 250 is a crazy number of sets for it to achieve. The base kit will have a good chance sure - its a great colourway, and I love it. But I can't buy if it doesn't have even basic ISO support.
Secondly, this hobby is about freedom to choose what layouts you want, across boards and switches - in essence to customise what you have. Here in the UK any PC you buy with a ****ty keyboard, or laptop all has ISO - I've tried ANSI, and I dislike not having quick access to certain keys, or having to retrain my brain when I switch devices.
ISO is part of the ingrained European standard and its difficult for a lot of people to move away from that. Its been used here historically. ANSI users dont subsidise ISO in this - everyone pays for keys that they dont use in any set - thats the beauty of the hobby - we can pick and choose what we want to use. I'm not certain that the Geekhack community is always representative of the whole community - so I expect little traction if anything here - and likely the usual ISO/non-standard bullying.
Finally - if you look at modern usage other staples of the keyset standard base set aren't being made. How many people really use a numpad? what about stepped caps? Multiple coloured enters for one layout are ok, but supporting another layout isn't? The majority of the boards on here are 60% or thereabouts and probably dont need that (I might be shooting myself in the foot here as a TX1800 user and a 65% user with my Noxary 268 amongst 25 or so other top end boards).
My suggestion would be to either include the bare minimum in the base set (like Muted, 9009, oblivion, red samurai, solarised dark etc.etc.).
If that's not palatable I almost question why you would run an extras kit that is almost certain to not make MOQ without Massdrop support, and do as the Chinese GBs do (like Iris, Rainbow, and KA2017/18) and support a single layout only.
