Now usually I'll be the last one to try and make an excuse for CASA, but wouldn't the big difference between getting a Passport and getting an ASIC be the sheer number of people doing so? Ie sharing the cost of Passports between millions of people as opposed to ASIC being shared between Tens of Thousands?
I still think they're a useless pile of garbage but the cost does make some sort of sense to me when I think about it that way.