Because if you offer competitive deals, that opens you to market segments who purchase based on price. That often means they are lower income, meaning a lower h

Because if you offer competitive deals, that opens you to market segments who purchase based on price. That often means they are lower income, meaning a lower hourly rate, meaning spending time haggling may be rational for them. Also low income is correlated with low education/working class demographics, which have associations with being more demanding, rude, etc. Your situation sounds like consulting/contract work so this is probably quite painful. But it's the right segment to target for mass market and volume products...