It's all markets. It has little to do with integrity; I mean, you go to shop, they will still try to tell you their tea is perfect and would be happy to part with 1500-2000 for their rubbish tea. I got a couple of good pals at market that usually tell me the approximate pricing schemes for each season but that doesn't mean it's set in stone.
Anyway, the weather was wretched this year for mainland Wulongs. They had a horrible dry spell during a very important time followed by days, weeks, and months of rain. Not enough sunlight or too much sunlight can ruin a crop. These things sorta determine the prices, not to mention the sheer volume of tea produced. This year, not as much of the higher quality stuff was produced so the costs are much lower.
With pu'er they are using leaves of all qualities to produce tea to fit demand. We discussed this earlier: the 2005-2006 pu'er is much lower quality than previous years because too many people are buying up all the reserves. It's the 2003 stuff and back that's going to tell the tale.