Hmm. Could it be perhaps that cheap prices and bare-bones service isn't what the majority of people wants, and that since that happens to just be the most profitable thing for airline companies to offer, they pretend that's what the customers are demanding?

I mean it's not as if there's no precedent for that kind of behavior. The idea the airlines are entirely subject to the whims of consumer demand seem laughable at the surface.

Maybe phrased another way: What evidence do you have that this is what customers want?