I don't feel they're very limited either. There's certainly a limited window in which to buy them at retail price/in stores but during that window there seems more than enough to go around. There may be exceptions to this, like the T2 T-800 seemed to be in short supply at first and ETD may be another, but in general it seems like despite the billions of people in the world, a point referenced before, no one is having trouble picking up these figures when they first come out.
I don't care to argue on this point though, I don't care so strongly that I want to prove it one way or the other, but just to me these figures have never struck me as being limited/scarce items.
As to numbers, I don't think they alone really mean much. You speculate about numbers for HT, as though knowing this would be proof of something, but I'm sure if you look through your collectibles you have a few non-HT figures/statues that you know are produced in small numbered quantities and yet you can still buy them today for the same price you paid a year ago and just as easily too. Two examples of this, looking around my room now, are the Gentle Giant TCM2 Leatherface bust, supposedly 1 of 1000, and a Dark Horse Homer statue, 1 of 600. These are very low numbers, especially when we go back to the point about there being billions of people in the world, and yet somehow, even knowing these numbers, there seems to be enough to go around...
Just don't let it happen again. 
