The big difference of course being that Rutan & his team are all being privately funded. The majority of the funding has come from Paul Allen, founder of microsoft with Bill Gate$, and has totalled just U$20m.
Possible commercial benefits? How about space tourism, priced for the new upper middle class. Given that Dennis Tito et al were willing to pay $20m to go into space, surely there will be more than enough willing passengers at somehwere between U$10k - 100k to cover the initial investment in this venture.