When you know the bees, you can optimize for any dimension among many.
Depending on the needs around our farm, we'd optimize for honey production, for pollen, for pollination services, for bee or queen production among others.
Now, my dad optimizes for joy. A bit of honey to give the grandkids, friends and neighbours. Pollination services for the berry farms (those farmers are his buddies) in that critical time when blossoms must be pollinated or there will be no berries, nukes (what we call fresh new bees with a queen, the nucleus 'nuke' of a colony) for other beekeepers that need more bees, teaching at the local community college.
Sometimes, we go into the bees with no protective gear. If you know the bees, you can do that. There is a sense of calm/zen/awe you get when among the bees that is hard to describe.
All this is to say, it is misleading to think of colony collapse as a problem. Rather, it is a choice some beekeepers increasingly make to optimize other things. Death rates under 10% are quite possible with a different set of choices. We get single digit death rates, even near zero, but getting there gives up a lot of other dimensions.
Bee production itself is so effective that it often makes economic sense to, in effect, stress a colony to death and replace it with a fresh one, rather than give the colony the space or attention needed to make it through.
The economics is clearer if you have dozens or hundreds of colonies. Then, you have to handle them en mass and accept higher losses as a result.
If you are going to hit peak pollination time in Florida, then truck your colonies across the continent to catch the sweet pollination money from California, you are going to stress your colonies far beyond what they can handle and lose a lot as a result. But, the oranges and the almonds will be pollinated and what you make will more than cover the cost of buying fresh new colonies.
Running the bees to burn through them is not a choice I'd make, but I understand the math even as I don't need the bees to support my family.