I think the main reason people want to pay less for flights is that it is a brief period of time. Friends of mine who were upgraded to BA 'WT+' from their usual 'WT' said that they would never pay for it and cheerfully sit in Y for 11hrs both ways at least once a year.
Short haul is the same, "Life is expensive enough - why pay more as we'll soon be on holiday?" and "... we'll soon be home." The fact that they moan about the cramped seating is another matter. It is well documented in this forum that when American Airlines took rows of seats out - it made no difference to their bookings and the seats went back in again. Price IS the determining factor for most pax.
I have said in here before that, following the global financial crisis of 2008, we would see 10 years of recession. I now update that to 15 years and folks will continue to want to pay the minimum.