document updated 18 years ago, on Apr 5, 2006

Yes, they're cheap/simple enough to be used by hobbyists. See Circuit Cellar references.
some are avaiable in 44-PLCC, 68-PLCC, or 84-PLCC packages, which a reasonable number of hobbyists are soldering by hand. Lead pitch is 50-mil, same as SOIC, so it's definitely possible.
The XC5202-6PC84C (84-PLCC) is currently selling for $10.15 in single quantities on Digikey, so there's at least some overlap in prices between microcontrollers and FPGAs.