Business travel, which continues to explode between the West and Asia, is far less price sensitive and far more time sensitive. And of course the number of wealthy air travelers continues to increase rapidly as well.
Plus, it's just f*cking exhausting to fly 10-18 hours, so people may well be willing to spend more on those extra-long-haul flights just to spare their mind and body. I don't believe any commercial supersonic jets were even able to fly trans-Pacific in the past, and ties between those regions were a tiny fraction of what they are today anyway. Faster trans-Pacific transport simply seems inevitable.
