Do I want to pay several hundred quid more for some nuts, a towel and "Tea? Coffee?" Of course not.
No nor do I. However, I know (from personal experience) that you got more than that. Better seat pitch, hot meals and complimentary alcohol to begin with. If a flight was delayed you were given a voucher which paid for a decent meal in the airport's full service restaurant. If a flight was cancelled they would make every effort to put you on an alternative flight including that of the competition. If the cancellation resulted in having to overnight they provided you with 4 or 5 star hotel accomodation inclusive of evening meal and breakfast. All this was available to all economy class passengers including those who had paid the much cheaper APEX economy fares.