I've seen this strategy in airline ticket pricing too. If you fly a few times you figure out that some airlines appear cheap but they're just deferring the cost

I've seen this strategy in airline ticket pricing too. If you fly a few times you figure out that some airlines appear cheap but they're just deferring the cost to later for luggage, seats, and amenities. It's unavoidable that if customers have behavior X, such as tending to go for the cheapest thing, sellers in the market will develop clever strategies to game that behavior. Retailers go so far as to research how the colors, shapes, and surface textures of packaging affect buying behavior, so of course they are also going to intensively study customer price sensitivity behavior too. I've learned that with a lot of things such as appliances, tools, and some electronics it's actually cheaper to buy the higher-end model. It's cheaper to buy one good one than two or three pieces of junk that break easily.