It appears to me that LL just wants to charge more for open sims; the demand is high so why not charge more? LL is a corporation so its primary goal, if not its only goal, is to make $ for its share holders. That would be fine if LL rewarded and respected the people that actually add real value to SL.
LL provides us with a service and that’s why we pay tier, but what would SL be like without user created content? The relationship between LL and its user are interdependent on each other. It is not just supply and demand, the users also add the value to the service by creating the world.
The set up cost to buy land should be seen as a direct investment in LL, content creation and high traffic events and places (real traffic not camping or bots) as added value to that SL experience. If LL treated land investors and value adders as share holders or found some way to reward/respect them and let them have a greater voice in SL both LL and its users would all benefit.