To put cost of blanks into perspective, the Americans can have a Lothar Walther barrel machined and fitted to their gun for around $120, that's £75, for a one-off custom job. Now if the smooth twist barrel blank is twice as much as the Lothar, it should hardly make a huge difference to the total cost of a gun.

There's maybe a good grain of truth in Hares Ear's earlier post.

If it's more expensive, it must be better, even if there's no commercial need for it to be more expensive.

Flavour of the month works in most hobbies