The increased costs of the cards was in SROs several months ago and I opted out.
The provision of 'free' rail cards is a commercial consideration by the rail companies who agreed to carry on this concession originally set up with BR. They were under no obligation to offer the cards and, like National Bus, clearly see a business case for the concession.
As I, and I am sure many others, had the card purely as a standby they were not getting any profit from me, hence the need to increase the fee. Next time I need a card I shall apply for one at the time.