Anything requiring transferring "to friends" will be attempted to be used for scalping of course.

I suppose if we're requiring showing ID to attend anyway, it's not a lot worse to add an online ID verification step in order to be allowed to be a "sender" in the transfer system, and an identity is only allowed to have like 5 distinct "friends" in a rolling 12-month window.

Part of me thinks that Ticketmaster/Live Nation probably makes so much money from their own in-house scalping operation that they don't want to fix any kind of scalping problems for fear they would be somehow obligated to not participate themselves.

Transferring tickets to friends is functionally indistinguishable from scalping

Handle it the same way airlines do. If you think you might not be able to go, then pay extra for a refundable ticket.

If you "can't make it", you just have to eat the loss. True fans will make it.

Would need to provide a decent refund system alongside named tickets, offering quick and easy refunds for maybe 10% cancellation fee.