Good article but it glosses over other factors.. like the piano mostly losing it's popularity as an instrument in the 20th century. Guitars really rose to prominence in the mid 20th century.
And then there is the general demise of playing instruments (including guitar) or performing music at all. Fewer people even sing today, and singing has the lowest barrier to entry of anything.
And then there is the rise of electronic music.
Really I think anything to do with manufacturing difficulty or things being too expensive is completely a side show compared to the general loss of popularity of piano and instruments in general.
I took 3-4 years of piano but then eventually switched to guitar. At one point I rented an acoustic but I was generally stuck with digital. My digital piano was more expensive than any guitar I've owned, but it still felt like an artificial instrument compared to the acoustic piano whereas all the guitars feel like the real thing. Could just be me though, my learning curve was much steeper on guitar but in the end I took to it more and enjoy it more. But the entry point for very high quality instruments being so much less expensive and the easy maintenance of a guitar versus a piano and the portability difference was obviously a significant thing. There's still a ridiculous amount of nuance and connection with any analog instrument. Acoustic pianos and string instruments have it in a way that's still challenging for anything digital.
"Guitars really rose to prominence in the mid 20th century."
I think that's very true and I reckon that's because the guitar is easily/quickly learned—that is to learn and play badly.
If your learning curve was much steeper with the guitar than the piano then your expectations must have been to play it properly (and that could be because of your piano experience).
I learned the piano for while and later gave up on the guitar because I found it too difficult to play every note on it as one does on a piano. Strumming a guitar and playing chords suits many and that's fine but I wanted to do what the likes of Segovia and John Williams do and that was pretty much beyond me.
I have done the inverse of you, learning to play the piano for the past year via lessons after playing guitar for most of my life. It really brings together music theory for me in a way that I just couldn't grok on the guitar. I refurbished what used to be a higher-end electric piano on my own, and just recently played on an acoustic piano for the very first time after studying piano for over a year now. It felt and sounded like an entirely different instrument that would take me plenty of practice just to translate the feel of what I have learned over to it.
And then there is the general demise of playing instruments (including guitar) or performing music at all. Fewer people even sing today, and singing has the lowest barrier to entry of anything.
And then there is the rise of electronic music.
Really I think anything to do with manufacturing difficulty or things being too expensive is completely a side show compared to the general loss of popularity of piano and instruments in general.
I took 3-4 years of piano but then eventually switched to guitar. At one point I rented an acoustic but I was generally stuck with digital. My digital piano was more expensive than any guitar I've owned, but it still felt like an artificial instrument compared to the acoustic piano whereas all the guitars feel like the real thing. Could just be me though, my learning curve was much steeper on guitar but in the end I took to it more and enjoy it more. But the entry point for very high quality instruments being so much less expensive and the easy maintenance of a guitar versus a piano and the portability difference was obviously a significant thing. There's still a ridiculous amount of nuance and connection with any analog instrument. Acoustic pianos and string instruments have it in a way that's still challenging for anything digital.