I think if they did, they’d sell less of it. Consumers would associate the cheaper price with a poorer quality product (most are probably not directly aware of the amount of duty they’re paying or even that they are). The whole goal of non alcoholic beer is to make it feel as much as a real beer as possible. A big price disparity would create more of a difference.
I'm not sure about that. As a teetotaler, I always cringe at how expensive a virgin mojito <or insert mocktail of choice> is, especially when they serve it in a tiny size appropriate for alcoholic beverages.
I'd order a lot more mocktails if they were more reasonably priced.
The alternative is an ethanol drink; there is basically zero economic incentive for a restaurant to lower it more than $1 or so below the price of a cocktail. Sure there's no sin tax but that is essentially pass through to the consumer, and the price competes against already sin taxed items.
Beverages at restaurants are always high margin and how they make much of their profits, they offer mocktails so they can capture the highest tier price preference for non alcohol consuming customers.
