As a preface, I'll state that I love the concept of the NUC. I want a Haswell NUC very much, and was considering an IVB NUC - until I saw the deal breaker (discussed below).
Basically, the NUC has not yet hit a price point that is desirable. The base unit on average is 300-400$, and that does not include a display (although, most folks will already have one in mind), does not include a SSD/storage, and does not include memory. The SSDs aren't a trivial cost since they're not using a standard SATA connector (mSATA instead) so they cost more than the typical SSDs.
The way I look at it is this. By the time I can get a NUC fully configured, i'm out of 500$. For 500$ I can get a bare minimum 300$ NUC, 120GB SSD, and a serviceable amount of memory. On the other hand, I can get a macbook air for 800$ with discounts. That macbook air includes a display, storage, and memory (obviously). Or you can get a prior year discounted ultrabook for even less. Why bother with the NUC again? For HTPC use, I get it. It can work there. Then again, it still is not a desirable price for even that. You can grab an LGA AMD APU an assemble a HTPC using that for a significantly lower cost. Heck - you can use a G2020 or an i3 for a lower HTPC cost as well.
The bottom line is - I don't understand the high price at all. Basically intel is giving us a box without storage and without memory but they expect 300-400$ for it. Come on. Too much for what you're getting. I say that as someone who really loves the NUC concept and would love to buy one as well. The price just needs to go down, IMHO.