Google flights will let you input the number of bags you are checking/carrying on to produce a "final" price.
That still leaves out leg room, meal service, lounge access, and all the other things that somebody might want.
I mean, you do get to know airlines by reputation - generally speaking I expect Ryanair to do all the bullshit dark pattern nickel and diming and not expect it from national airlines like Lufthansa.
I think overall you overestimate the amount most people fly. Generally, many people fly very little or almost never. Sure, there's world travelers that know who are bad airlines, but knowing the 'secrets' to not having a bad flight is assuming a lot of the average occasional flight consumer.
And the people who fly a lot? Almost all of them are flying on business, on somebody else's money.
Which is also why the hotel where people stay when they're visiting friends has free wifi, and the hotel next to the convention center does not.
> Everyone seems to love this, or at least, they didn't stop flying.
Nobody "loves" it. They just have to put up with it because even for people who know what they're doing with flight searches, the only way to dig into all that dark pattern shit is to have fifty browser tabs open comparing the fine details of different flights.
If it was possible to, say, compare all those up-charges up front using flight search tools, I'm sure you'd see a lot more people choosing the slightly more expensive tickets.