If resale was freely allowed, you'd get a ton of middlemen skimming the margins, i.e. arbitrating. Like we have with concert tickets now.
I dunno, ticket reselling might not be strictly better, but it seems unlikely to be worse and at the very least it would be nice to have the option of selling your ticket if your plans change. As it is, you generally either have to pay extra in advance for that privilege, or just eat the loss. Either way it's great for the airlines, therefore not great for consumers.