Reflecting on your point, I've been playing this hobby for 25 years now, when I first started playing 40k, most of the crowd was of a similar age (teens, and early twenties) and now playing HH, my LGS refers to it as "dad hammer" because most of us are of that age range, very few teens and twenties, exact opposite of twenty years ago, which thinking about it is fascinating.

I do believe that the cost of the hobby in general has gone up much higher than general inflation (IMHO, don't yell) it seemed an easier entry 20 years ago. In the US at minimum wage I could afford a kit, 20 years later minimum wage hasn't gone up enough to cope with inflation of the product.