To answer the question, no it is not worth the price hike. It’s a four year old model by now and a newer one is probably in the pipeline. I recommend looking for one on sale or Apple refurbished instead.
Also don’t be surprised if the power button on your $60 Siri Remote pops out after a year or so. Easily fixable with scotch tape, but another reason to wait for the next revision or a sale price.
There are a number of posts online about this problem if you do an internet search (as I found out when trying to repair mine). Not sure if it was a bad batch, or an inherent design flaw.
We figured it was the cat, as he was always playing with the remote, so we never looked into any further.