Good question.

A motorcycle tire has to do a lot of things a car tire could never do. Lean over on it's sidewall, provide nearly 100% traction at all times with just the right amount of slippage, act as a damper for chassis instabilities, absorb a tremendous amount of rotational torque, the requirements go on and on.
Motorcycle tires have come so far so fast in the last 25 years that consumers (us) are still in the process of subsidizing the development costs. The good news is that prices for the latest tires have stabilized somewhat.

Tire Pointers

The typical shelf life for an installed motorcycle tire is about three years. After that time period the rubber has hardened (or cured) enough to deliver only HALF the traction from when new. With this knowledge you are able to tailor the type of tire to your riding mileage. In other words, don't buy a long distance tire when you only ride 2-3000 miles a year.

Get a good tire gauge and use it. Cycle tires hold a fairly small volume of air, so they need to be checked much more often than car tires.

If you get a puncture in a tubeless tire that has less than one/half of it's original tread left, there is no reason to give much thought about what to do. It needs to be replaced

Rubber cracking on the sidewall indicates either chemical damage or age, as in old. As the rubber continues to cure after being made, it shrinks. Cracking=hardness=painfully poor traction. Please replace them for safety's sake.