The real advance SLS gives you over FDM is that it can print a wider range of materials - metals, and some ceramics, and some thermoplastics that the filament producers haven’t developed yet for FDM. But metal SLS printers use a multi-hundred-watt laser (which sell today for thousands to tens of thousands of dollars on alibaba), and a build chamber heated close to the melting point of metal under an inert atmosphere. So while yes, expiring patents will probably cause SLS printer price to fall a lot, they will not be $300 in 7 years (the time since Stratasys’ patents started expiring).
