If Time Warner, Comcast, and AT&T want their names to be associated with budget brands then its ok. Customers accept poor quality when the price is really low and there is no lock in (pre-paid mobile phone service.) Good luck getting those people to purchase premium services from you years in to the future.
On Hacker News we complain a lot about things most people don't care about like privacy and security. Most big companies can disregard those issues with minimal visible impact to their business long term. Video streaming quality is different because its what basically all of your customers are doing. Anyone with an IQ over 70 knows something is wrong, and you can't excuse it away.
Its possible that the peak bandwidth doesn't exist. In that case these ISPs are overselling their "inventory" much like airlines oversell seats. It could be early signs of infrastructure issues to investors.