TSM,
I (kinda) agree with what you are saying.
I would guess that RIAT no longer gets the amount of support (in terms of manpower/equipment) that it used to receive from the Military.
An example would be the vehicles. When I started at RIAT I was given an RAF landrover to use. Obviously, a lot of volunteers are now civilians so that is unworkable. This year my vehicle was a rented Punto. There used to be lots of trainees used to help build the site on det from Halton etc. That has stopped. (Before you say anything - I can understand that, esp with the number of other Ops the boys and girls are on)
There are lots of ways that RIAT could save money. However, you need to look at what is donated by the RAFBF Enterprise as a whole - and see that the air show - whilst not a loss leader - is very much the show piece. A lot of additional revenue is gained from the Aviation Catalogue/Annual concert tours etc.
To sum: I think it is unfair to equate the two shows in financial gain/show costs.