Rainboe has hit the nail on the head. This is an exercise by the authorities to limit the ambarassment of their tax hike on travel. When you get fare quotes that come out like £98 Incl. £48 tax, etc it doesn't take a professor to realise that the fare is very cheap and the government is getting free money for doing nothing. The tax component should be a small 'extra' not a massive chunk of your hard earned cash. Transparent pricing should reflect what the company gets and what the wretched governments are stealing.
Of course the locos are also trying to sell you all manner of things but so do most companies i.e. mobile phone companies, gym membership that runs for minimum 12 month, etc.... Aviation is merely a fashionable target yet government whose own ideas have edged them towards bankruptcy are siphoning from the succesful i.e. the airline business.
Nothing to do with pricing if it were they deserve to have a grace period to put things in order and now be lectured to do like some idle school boy caught by the headmaster.