Sure, and if those individual franchises start failing or finding other corporate overlords, then McDs profits may go down and they may have to reduce those fee

Sure, and if those individual franchises start failing or finding other corporate overlords, then McDs profits may go down and they may have to reduce those fees in order to remain competitive. Such is capitalism. Does this equilibrium-finding method create undo misery and stress for the franchise owners? I would say yes. If franchisees banded together to negotiate in order to extract better fee arrangements from McDs without going through individual bankruptcy, well...