There was never any good reason for $30-$40 per subtitled tape, aside from anime companies "knowing" we'd pay it. Scalping bastards!
And no, dubs aren't the reason why anime is popular, pokemon, dragon ball z, yu-gi-oh, zoids, etc, are the reason why anime is such a mass market. Dubs are the reason why releases take so freakin' long to come out.
Bottom line, if enough effort was made to educate the masses on why fullscreen movies are bad, and why subtitled foreign stuff is good, this would be a much less ignorent world.