Your of course right... alot of people fly between 1000-2000ft because of the view.
The view in question being the ground; a stipulation of the basic PPL-A/ NPPL they hold. People fly higher because they either like clouds or they are droning on somewhere and want to get out of the weather; get there faster; or more fuel efficiently. For the majority of recreational flyers the view of the ground from above is one of the reasons they do it. Flying bigh being a highly expensive irrelevance.
As far as the widespread installation and USAGE of beacons in the light aircraft fleet (inc gliders ,microlights, LSA's) I'm not so sure. It is for the very problem of constant aspect, non-moving, potentially colliding targets that a FLASHING beacon might give some protection...admittedly based on no research evidence that I'm awatre of.
TIM