tdracer, as usual an interesting insight from your obvious longtime industry experience, thanks for that.
However, on the specific subject of autonomuous-flying-economies, I think you underestimate the rise in complexity, cost, maintenance and downtime of a more autonomuous aviation system.
Replacing the redundancy of two well trained pilots (who are capable to deal on the spot with the myriads of hickups a complex aviation system endures every day) with software and automatic hardware is a fundamental change in the design and operation of our aviation system. I do not see this as cheaper than two pilots, quite the opposite.
Indeed I think that the evolution is coming to an end here - except may be single pilot CRUISE could still be achieved.