As a brewer myself, this is quite interesting. You're right about the cost of hops, even here in Australia buying Australian varieties you'll still end up paying quite a bit. It's kind of ironic I can buy a few kilograms of grains and it barely costs me anything and the grains are the main ingredient.

While yeast strains that impart bitterness or change the flavour like hops is cool, I doubt it would ever be the same as using actual hops. Some things cannot be truly replicated or imitated.

What I would personally love to see is something like CRISPR being used to create hops that require less water and take less time to grow. I tried growing my own hops once and didn't realise it takes years to get a healthy yield of hops you can start using.