If producers create a consumer product that fulfills unmet needs on the way to high prices, the latter is the signal to other producers to enter the market for the same good on the way to lowering its cost.
Moreover, by offering increasingly generous packages to students who haven't demonstrated a need, private colleges and universities make haggling and bickering the norm, and direct too many dollars away from families that can't afford the high sticker price and whose needs therefore go unmet.