Ian,
Yeah, but in some ways, fees define the work an architect gets. If you keep selling yourself on small fees, those are the kind of clients you get. If you sell on quality, but quality takes time, you will lose more jobs, but the ones you get will allow your talents to shine through. And, once they pay a reasonable fee, they seem to value the advice you give a bit more. A low cost architect is often a pushed around architect.
Most of us have early projects we regret, as we were selected only on low fee, and construction budget matched. The problem is getting out of that rut, esp. when you do have repeat clients over the long term. They remember when a master plan or green plan cost "X" when you gave them the "I'm just starting" deal. I still have to give some of my early clients big discounts compared to new work. My only consolation is, that in talking to some of the biggest names in the biz at ASGCA, I find they have the same type of problems.....even if the decimal place is different!