The answer is never “make service better to attract customers”, it’s always “extract as much value as possible from the ones that remain”. Shitty short term number go up mentality.

I think the more important factor is taking ownership over something that originated elsewhere.

Even though it isn’t sacred, I would argue that the association between Great Britain and tea comes from appropriation. It wasn’t necessarily appropriation for the Portuguese to bring tea back to Europe, but it certainly was when the British used Chinese seeds and cultivation techniques in India to push China out of the trade.