Kunos Simulazioni studio declared that the price of Assetto Corsa Evo would not change until the early access release. But then the developers changed their minds and quietly edited the game's card on Steam without telling anyone.
There are a lot of paid mods for the original AC, so I expect that will be part of it. However, I do think that there are two other reasons for the devs to want to host a platform of their own:
Being able to remove content ripped from other games, which will help keep them out of trouble
Giving users the option to automatically download the mods necessary to join a multiplayer game
There are a lot of paid mods for the original AC, so I expect that will be part of it. However, I do think that there are two other reasons for the devs to want to host a platform of their own: