Netflix is at least unintentionally messaging at this point that "only families want or need higher quality streams" and that is a very weird mixed message in the current streaming market, especially now with their slowly increasingly more hostile messaging that they are tired of people sharing passwords (because the shareholders demand account growth in a saturated market with a much-increased field of competitors).
on a mordern display 1080p content are visibly pixilated
(And don't get me started on how 4K is a blatant lie as it's really 3860-px wide. 2160p is also ok. Real 4K is a thing, but not consumer).
The real quality problem is bitrate, not raw resolution. A 1080p Blu-ray looks absolutely amazing on a 4K TV. Low-bitrate 4k looks like dogshit. I’d be ok with Netflix’s 1080p if the compression wasn’t so poor on some titles!
Do they have money? Absolutely. To stream 4k you need a good internet connection and good equipment.
With this in mind, it completely makes sense to charge the most for 4k. Someone that cares is more than wealthy enough to pay for it. Having a 4k 1 person plan would be a loss of profits.
What the actual plans seems to be is to keep multiple profiles and multiple streams but insist that users of a plan are "in the same household" which is totally nuts and the most cable/broadcast TV way of thinking possible.
Presumably they will fingerprint each client and ensure that these clients are "normally" coming from the same location or even IP. Totally mad, will end in tears .
Part of the appeal of sharing your account is that it brings the effective cost closer to $5/mo/person at most.
Or, what most people I know do: one person pays for Netflix, one for Disney+, one for HBO, etc. Even if I can get a single screen 4K plan for say, $10, there’s no way I’m paying $50 for 5 different services for just myself.
You valuing access around $5/mo suggests Netflix’s experimental pricing of $3-4/mo per shared login might be dialed in, though.