But it seems simpler in some ways than injection molding. You make a single die that's a 2D cross section, extrude as much aluminum as you want, cut it into pieces.
If you only need one than the cheapest is find a local machinest and say "make a case to fit" It will be all manual and designed on the mill/lathe except where experience says "better draw this part up first" (one in a while they will scrap a part because it doesn't fit, but overall still cheap). If you need 5-100 then draw it up in CAD and have a machinist (need not be local) throw it on their CNC machines. If you need 1000 or more then design an injection process. Where I put exact numbers that is because the overhead vs efficiency of the process makes this best, where I didn't put anything it is a judgement call, it isn't clear when exactly ones process should be abandoned for the next. (even then sometimes I'm wrong, but for discussion I'm close enough - if you are doing real world work consult a real manufacturing engineer)
Injection molding is great for making a lot of parts, but the cost of designing a working mold means the upfront costs are a lot higher and if you cannot reuse that mold enough to spread that cost across many parts it isn't worth doing.
Extruded aluminium cases are fairly popular for smaller production runs because they're generally off-the-shelf with only the faceplates being custom (usually laser cut and engraved). So the fixed costs are basically zero but the unit costs are somewhat high (aluminium is expensive). Lots of stuff is just made in large enough runs that molded parts become cheaper overall (very nonzero fixed costs but very low unit costs).
I think it's just the reverse of this. It's easier than ever to get custom injection molding done, even at relatively low scales. Yes, the setup cost for machining holes in extrusion is very low, but if you're going to make even 1,000 of something you might consider getting a low volume tool made.
