Math failure here. If you keep half your $1400 units off the market and get $2400 for the others you are losing $400 per unit. Also there is zero evidence any landlords were doing this.
You don’t need evidence for vibes based thinking. The goal is to satisfy emotional needs, not logical consistency.
Except you can write off those $1400 units as $2400 of losses that will offset profits from another part of your business.
Not everything is "Economics 101."