With the huge loses sustained minting cents, nickels and maybe soon dimes the mint is just trying to go less in the hole.
Agreed, when they first started doing the clad commemorative half dollars back in 1986 they specifically said they were included so that kids/YN's would have a low priced option that would let then have something to collect. Originally they wer $2.50 for the Unc coins. The price didn't break $10 till 2003. By 2008 they had dropped back to $8. Prices started going nuts with the next issue in 2011 at $16. They broke the $20 level in 2016, $26 in 2019, $37 in 2020.