Don’t know which reality you live in … maybe you are already very rich and you don’t mind but trust me the reality is not that shiny for most people either in Europe, US or even Japan, China, South Korea. Even in the countries where there are more rich people most indie developers have to start from nothing with very few money and in many countries in Europe taxes are very high which is another bad thing. Only rich people and already established businesses can afford high fees. Surely not a small developer, a freelancer that has a few money to risk and not enough to pay an high fee too.
Asking an high fee to small developers with nothing in return would be the worst Valve could do. If they would set an high fee in the $500+ range they should ensure a minimum number of copies sold (no less than 10,000 so that for a game sold at $9.99 the developer ends up with some money once taxes are paid …which can be as high as 60% in Europe!) and that they would promote the product at any cost to sell those copies. Otherwise why would anyone want to pay them such an high fee for? They are already getting 30% on sales anyway too.