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Stop thinking e-books for a minute.
There is a maximum profit price for any monopoly. It is determined by number of buyers at any price point (which drops as prices rise) versus the percent of price as profit (which rises as price increases). There is a sweet spot for maximum cash flow price along the curve. Every monopoly tries to find that point and maintain it.
Note - it has nothing to do with production cost, just market behavior.
Publisher are in a odd sort of business. They are in a competitive market for individual monopolies. (That's what I.P. is, a monopoly.) They know as long as they collude on the overall market, they can attempt to find (and exploit) the monopoly maximum cash flow pricing points. So they sell at the same price points for similar merchandise, hopefully at the combined (all publishers) maximum overall max cash flow point.
Anything that erodes the ability to maintain this point is considered a threat to their business, and so it is. That's why they went after used books back in 1910. (shot down by the US Supreme Court). That's why the disdain for the backlist, there isn't enough market at the monopoly protecting maximum cash flow price point to make it worthwhile for them. The outliers, (Harlequin, Baen, O'Reilly, et. al.) are brushed off as irrelevant (don't look at the man behind the curtain!), because the publishers don't want the buying public to understand their cash flow maximizing behavior.
And their ultimate horror is "piracy", because it cuts out their entire cash flow.
That's what all the hollering is about. Once you understand the game, all the prices and behaviors make sense. Even copyright extension. (Think of them as price support mechanisms, like soil banking for farmers.)
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