It's commonly a low volume - high value transaction, so they can charge that much. I have used them to buy houses and change banks. But not to buy a car - because car dealers are evil and there's no way to easily reverse one when the dealer stiffs you.

Ah you poor naive soul.

That's not the American way. Our services are both expensive and slow. You see, it's about freedom! We are the Most Free (lol, sorry) and therefore corporations are free to be bad in both ways simultaneously. :D

American retail banks are so heavily relationship based that there's zero competitive pressure on pricing, even for things that people use quite a bit more than wire transfers. For example, it's completely trivial to find savings accounts paying a 3.50% interest rate right now, but the largest banks offer more like 0.03%.