Now the bills go to individual researchers who often don't even publish with a specific journal more than once every couple of years. I doubt anyone will keep track how much publishing fees increase. Also it's not really the case that there is much competition, if you can get your paper into a high-ranked journal you don't send it elsewhere to save 500$ or something. Also it used to be that the library subscription budget was clearly defined to the University or institute, now the APCs often come out of one of the many research grants.
My bet is that the APCs will increase much faster than the subscription fees did.
Smartest maybe, but elite?
We as a society do not treat researchers as elite. They are paid shit, they spend half their time filling in meaning less papers to get grant funding, they have no political influece, media does not give them airtime or ask their opinion on critical issues. They have a modicum of respect and thats about all.
Maybe we should treat them better.
Wait until you hear about the last publisher fuckery: APC (article processing charges). For those outside the publishing loop, a lot of journals are now publishing papers under an open licence BUT authors have to paid a huge (often in the thousand or more) sum to get the article published. Since whole journals are now "open", this isn't negotiable. In the end it means journals are still taking a lot of institutions money, just in another way, and blocking access to people like me who are trying to publish papers on their own.