caps, fees, lotteries — every version ends the same way: travel goes back to being for the rich. the lads i grew up with get one budget flight a year and youre telling them barcelona is full. the yacht crowd will be grand tho. they always are

That's an argument against fees, not caps. A capacity system can be a free timed slot — the Acropolis does exactly this — where a nurse booking in February and a billionaire booking in February hit the same button. Caps done as lotteries are the *most* egalitarian version. It's pricing that sorts by wallet.