>the chicken does not care that it was fattened on biodynamically-grown grain, and neither do I.
Just out of curiosity what animals in your point of view do care for being caged?
In my view I think it has some impact on the animal well being, and if I understand it right, the life length of the hen and the egg quality is also correlated to how they live.
Hopefully health authorities and regulators will start to question if those places, besides unethical, are potential factories of virus strains.
You mention the ecological requirements of giving a chicken the proper larger space, which poses the question: maybe eggs for mass consumption just aren't ecological at all.
To copy the text from wikipedia: "A number of countries have later adopted regulations to completely ban cage farming (including the furnished cage option), for example Switzerland, Germany and the UK with a transition period to 2025. "
In the EU, that only applies to code 3 eggs, which are already outlawed in many EU member states:
Even if it doesn't change much of their behavior, it degrades their health.
The list will just keep on growing, and probably in the future we will look back at what we do to pigs, cows, sheep, chicken, etc and see something despicable and one of the lowest points in human history.