It's not obvious that these measures would boost the price. An owner might accept lower margins for scale. Or they may cut costs that don't matter, but which everyone dogmatically incurs, to incur the ones that do.

An in any case, segmentation is a thing. Targeting premium customers is a profitable strategy. It's also a virtuous cycle, since each premium customer gives you resources to expand your lead while depriving your competitors of their business (e.g. for upsold services).

Which is apparently why the engineer owns both discount (Arco) and premium (Shell) stations.

Clearly untrue, at least where I live.

There are two thriving chains of gas stations that do well because they offer superior customer experience. There are often lines inside and outside.

Then there are half a dozen other chains that are bare-bones and sell the gas for up to 30¢ a gallon cheaper. They don't have nearly the traffic as the nice chains.