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It could definitely be for cost reasons. FI models exist because emission laws require them to. Just because the production line exists doesn't make it suddenly cheap and economical to produce FI engines for ALL bikes sold in the world. Scaling production up still takes money and makes the end product more expensive. Americans and Europeans won't necessarily willingly pay the same amount of money for the same product.
I'm sure there's a production-cost/revenue graph for each bike model produced that shows where the break even point for the cost of manufacturing a bike vs the retail price is. There's got to be a reason (other than demand) the Ninja 250R is MSRP'd at $4000 while the 650R with FI and a few more bells and whistles goes for $6800, a small price difference if you ask me, for an extra 40 horsepower or so. If the Ninja 250 cost any more, no one would buy it, and Kawasaki would sell one less model of bike.
My argument is that building a fuel injected engine costs more than a carb'd engine, but building a 60 hp engine probably doesn't take a lot more in terms of materials and labor than building a 25 hp engine. The bikes are each built to fulfill a specific demand, not be the pinnacle of technological practicality. For the statistical American consumer, perhaps the price of FI in a 600 cc bike is worth the extra investment, but not in a 250 cc bike.
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