I've got the Ap2v1 wheels on my Ap1 which I purely use for daily driving. I have the Hankook Ventus RS-3's on it and I like these tires, but the rears have lasted 10,000 miles...

Few questions:

Is this common to a tire that's in the Extreme performance summer category?
Am I wasting my money and should go with a Max performance summer tire? (The OE tire sits in this category, but is quite more expensive than others).
The UTQG rating describes the treadwear correct? The RS-3's are 200 whereas the OE tire is 140, which means they wouldn't last as long as the RS-3's?

Ultimately I'd like to put a comparable tire on the car with a more practical price point unless someone can explain why the OE tire (Bridgestone Potenza RE050) is $223 for a rear tire vs the average $130-170?

Here's my original search query.
Tirerack

 

RE-11a

You'll find that they will actually grip better than the RS3s in the vast majority of street driving conditions (the RS3s need a decent amount of heat in them before they really get to their optimum operating temps for generating max grip - and that's generally harder to achieve in DD/street conditions).

You'll also find that these tires will easily last 2-3x as long for DD use. I'd expect you can get 25K+ miles with these tires doing combined DD activities and spirited mountain carving on the weekends.

 

Yes it's normal for extreme performance tires to last 10,000 street miles. And in my opinion yes they are a waist of money if you car is only street driven and in never on a track or auto cross. If I never auto crossed my car I would just run sumitomo htrz3 or hankook evo 2's. But I do auto cross my car every so often so I do only run extreme performance tires and I burn threw them every few months or so.