Wow, that'a real poser! I can't really answer it conclusively, because no matter what I say, there will be a "yeah but...". For example, I could say that encased, plunged florals are more time consuming than stacked dots, but then, there are dots and there are dots... so I can't really say that.
I can tell you that one of my encased florals with vines takes me only slightly longer than one of my ocean waves beads of comparable size, and part of that is fine dot placement and manipulation of the glass. Every step of adding or manipulating glass adds to the time, and time adds to the price, so yes, for me, difficulty relates directly to price.
As an example, beads that are simply a single base color rolled in frit:
Step 1. Melt rod & make base bead Step 2. Roll in frit, melt smooth.
Whereas encased florals are more like this:
Step 1. Make a striped, encased stringer for vines Step 2. Make a stringer for petal base color Step 3. Make a stringer for petal top color Step 4. Melt rod & make tiny base bead Step 5. Apply vine stringer, melt smooth Step 6. Encase, melt smooth Step 7. Apply 3-4 sets of 3 to 5 tiny dots of petal base color Step 8. Apply petal top color, melt smooth Step 9. Spot heat each petal cluster, plunge centers Step 10. Apply small dot of clear over plunges, melt smooth Step 11. Apply final encasing layer, melt smooth.
My ocean waves beads:
Step 1. Make a stringer for doing the twists Step 2. Cut a small piece of silver leaf Step 3. Make base bead Step 4. Apply silver leaf; burnish on Step 5. Apply band of top color, melt smooth Step 6. Spot-heat and twist edges of top color with cold stringer Step 7. Gently fire-polish.
It has fewer steps than a floral, but step 6 is very time-consuming.
I hope that kinda, sorta helped answer your question. :)
-Kalera