They certainly DO understand how it work but I think that attempting to change it - will only rearrange the deck chairs. Flying costs a lot more money than the headline price but everyone has learnt that if you make the headline price realistic and include everything (20th century style) you will sell far fewer seats. So they lower the headline price. Airlines are not the only ones who do this, railway companies now prince in airline terms of future date/travel now.
For decades car manufacturers put very few things on the base model in order to get the price down and get you into the showroom. Then the salesman went to work to get you to upgrade - same thing. As we (and Which?) know - everyone looks at the bottom line price before booking and if you have not read the Ts&Cs, before you ticked the box saying that you had - you are still bound by them.