Mike,
I'd disagree with you that the industry is aloof. Maybe it's just the guys I hang out with, but 90% of the supers I've met are the ones you're talking about that are doing a lot with a little. 10% is not the industry.
Compare it to a home remodeling showroom, which I've spent too much time in lately. You walk around and all you see is Viking Ranges, Sub-Air fridges, wine cellars, and so on. Do people buy that and spend $100K on a kitchen? Sure. But, the majority of people are buying from Sears and Home Depot.
That said, there are plenty of people in life who think anything but a Viking is crap, and there are people on this board who think that anything less than a million dollar maintenace budget is crap.
At the end of the day, people will spend what they want to spend, and logic has nothing to do with it. As Craig says, it is determined by the desires of the membership. And, if the membership wants to spend more money, they will spend more money.