> always instinctively followed the generosity path

> experienced that when customers are delighted and that when frictions are removed

Charlie Munger:

  When other companies find ways to save money, they turn it into profit. [Costco] passes it on to customers. It’s almost a religious duty. [They] sacrifice short-term profits for long-term success”.

Many different ways to conduct business. "Lean Enterprise" might be in line with your thinking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_enterprise

> talking people out of trying to prematurely squeeze out every last penny?

I'd say this is a wrong framing. It isn't the people; it is the systems & environs they are in, the incentives they operate under.

Economists have a term they call "willingness-to-pay", using which some business might optimize for "consumer surplus" (low price), some for "producer surplus" (high margin).

See also, The Economics of Customer Businesses, Michael Mauboussin et al, https://www.eatonvance.com/insights/consilient-observer/the-... (2021).

Or Bezos' "Create more than you consume": https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to...