Mid-'70s TOTL bikes were about 5 times as expensive as BOTL bikes, say $100 for a basic, decent bike-store bike, and $500 for a racer or TOTL tourer.
According to the inflation calculator I used, 100 1974 dollars is $629 now, but I bought a basic, decent bike-store bike (Jamis Citizen 1) for about $500 just before the pandemic.
If you take $500 as the new BOTL price, and $15K as the TOTL price, now TOTL bikes are about 30 times as expensive!
Racing may improve the breed, but it's marketing that improves the margins.