This response was initially confusing to me, but thinking about it, I think it led me to realize that complaints about things like this are, essentially, an att

This response was initially confusing to me, but thinking about it, I think it led me to realize that complaints about things like this are, essentially, an attempt at coordination among consumers, in order to collectively get a better deal. If there were only a single consumer, a monopsony, they would have a large degree of influence on the price. Building a public consensus on what prices are reasonable and what prices are "too high" allows for exerting similar pressures on the price, as if there were an organization which represented a large portion of the consumers and which would make a single decision for all of that portion (like, a purchasing union thing). I hadn't realized this.