I honestly just think it's ignorance and/or plain idiocy. One of my closest friends who's not dumb by any means, bought a home with his gf when homes were highly overvalued but loan rates were still on a record low (European country). I asked him if it was really such a good idea and if they couldn't just rent or keep living seperately for a while longer - but no.
Well, when everything caught up and their rate doubled all of a sudden it's hard to make their economy work (luckily they get by and are both educated but the rates can't go much higher before shit hits the fan).
He later had to get a new car and could barely afford a 20yo used car and complained that it's hard to have money left after all costs of living and I, like a good (bad?) friend, discreetly (not very much) brought up the fact that I "told him so". His response was "yes I know but those are the rules we just have to play by and it's out of our control".
"the venue" is most likely owned my LiveNation, which also owns Ticketmaster. That's why they CAN have those insanely inflated prices, because they control everything. Like someone mentioned, Pearl Jam tried going off the beaten track and find venues NOT owned by LiveNation , which proved to be .. hard
This story is like if Hide and Creed had a baby