I don't know about sales, but maybe you don't need the full-blown version. There are stripped down versions for a lower price. Quite honestly, many home recording types don't need everything the full version has. I use the Artist version and it does more than I need. The Elements version does like 90% of the full-blown version and it is only $99usd.
As for the learning curve, yeah, there's a learning curve. I used Cubase for many years then started using Vegas for my videos. I found that after using Cubase, Vegas was very intuitive. It may not quite work the other way around. Cubase has so many options and functions for all different types of musicians that it is easy to get tripped up with what to learn and what isn't important to you. Vegas is more straight forward because the basics of video editing is pretty much the same for everyone.
Cubase can be a little difficult to learn how to set up with interfaces and assigning channels, tracks, etc... but once you get past that part, it becomes pretty easy to use. And there are many people here who are experts with Cubase and are willing to help... Jimmy being one of them.