[brodouevencode]

Comparing them to taxis isn't one-for-one for this context: most municipalities had barriers to entry to prevent just anyone from running a taxi service (i.e. the medallions in NYC).

The business will do the math to figure out what they can get away with. Honestly there probably is a little political posturing here as OP said, but if they return it's because they made the math work, otherwise they'll stay gone.