As you point out, the cost per unit could be vastly reduced if heavy-lifters were rolling down production lines. But furthermore, the cost of *payloads* could be dramatically reduced as well. Right now, one of the primary reasons that spacecraft are so expensive is that they must be extremely lightweight and miniaturized, yet incredibly durable and reliable. This requires the use of exotic materials, extremely precise micro-manufacturing techniques, and fanatical testing regimes -- which is how you end up with, say, custom-built digital cameras that weigh a couple of grams and cost $10 million apiece. If weight were no limit, then it would far easier to use off-the-shelf components and cast the damn spacecraft out of pig-iron (well, not quite, but you get the idea). This would facillitate yet another order of magnitude reduction of cost.

For these reasons, the EELVs are definitely a step in the right direction, but they're not going nearly far enough. Personally, my hopes are riding on Microcosm's Scorpius program, which still seems to be advancing as slowly yet steadily as ever.

Cheers,

Nathan.