$6 isn't a lot relative to the cost of even driving to a national park for most people. comparing it to a $50 bag check or $100 in ticketmaster crap is disingenuous in the extreme.
recreation.gov is one of the very few dot gov's that doesn't make me want to put my hand through the nearest wall, precisely because it wasn't built like healthcare.gov.
the site services 23 million active users and has to handle a lot of complexity around managing limits on how many people can visit.
the author here is just straight-up wrong; consult this article for accurate information: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/hiking-and-b...
"Here’s how it all works at the field level. A manager at a National Park, Forest Service, BLM office, or the like decides that a user fee must be paid or that a site or trip is so popular that a paid permit or reservation is required to protect the resource and the experience. The consumer of those services—we the people—log into rec.gov and pay the designated fee or pay into a lottery to try to win a permit. That money goes to the Treasury Department. From that account, Recreation.gov pays Booz Allen for its work based off each transaction as agreed upon in the original contract, and almost all of the rest goes back to the individual agency. Over the past four years, says Delappe, 85 percent of what is charged goes back to the agencies. Recreation One Stop does not set those fees, nor does Booz Allen. But Booz Allen’s original contract did include specific fees for various transactions. It’s the managers in the field that set the prices. They of course try to cover their costs and the transaction costs for Recreation.gov."
TLDR: people be sayin shit. in this case "people" is some rando on substack and "shit" is "muh private company bad"