I didn't assume you'd want cheap plastic, although I did assume that's what you'd get for the price. I can't imagine a hogue stock set would drop the price and there's already people in this thread complaining about the price.
Rubber butt pad would be nice for the reason you give though. My gun room has linoleum and my 22s with plastic butt plates do like to try and fall over.
My thinking is that if people are going to react to the price increase, why not improve the stock set even if it costs a bit more to produce. It's not like painted wood is free, I can't see a nicer synthetic stock adding more then $50 to the cost but I'm just pulling numbers out of my a s s....