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Price comes down with increased manufacturing. It is possible that the 6AS7G could have dropped in price if RCA had cranked them out in greater quantity. The 6L6 was initially a somewhat expensive tube and was notoriously difficult to built in production quantities. RCA worked out the kinks and by the late 40s it was about $0.50 to $1.00.
Of course ramping up production on the 6AS7G would have required greater demand, which would have required manufacturers, or an insane number of amateurs, to actually use it. It seems to me the 6AS7G was the right tube, at the wrong time, or rather, the wrong price.
As far as audio use goes, RCA missed a golden opportunity to lock down the Hi-Fi market early on by really pushing that 10 watter they had designed. If they had marketed that design and the 6AS7G in the same manner that the Williamson and KT66 were promoted in England and Australia, and subsequently the US, I strongly suspect the Williamson wouldn't have been nearly so popular in this country. But RCA was a corporate giant interested in selling radios and television sets. While they were competent at building excellent Hi-Fi equipment, it wasn't their bread and butter, and certainly wasn't on their radar in any real sense...
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