One possible contributory force here might also just be the smaller size of the market for >$1k meals, resulting in less total creative effort being brought to

One possible contributory force here might also just be the smaller size of the market for >$1k meals, resulting in less total creative effort being brought to bear on the problem. Intuitively this seems very likely: a large fraction of the world's population cooks on a regular basis, and the sheer scale could overcome even very large forces that select for highly skilled and creative chefs to cook in fine dining.