Has been like that for a while, I cancelled a build ~ a month ago after running some very rough numbers while keeping in mind increasing difficulty. In fact Im going to cancel mining on my already bought 6990 soon, as imo a few $ a day just isnt worth the time/heat/noise. Bought some and am trading (which dosent really seem like its worth my time so far either, unless I put in a serious amount of cash, $4000.00+ like you mention). My opinion may be different if I was a kid and living on pocket money etc.