Far better surely that such a system is designed in mind that someone might choose not to use it than that they'll get whatever they're given. I'm not sure why you would be outraged by this.
If thats not a good enough example, there are plenty of government departments that require payment for their services and I think the same would apply. Like renewing a passport, I would hate to be called a customer.
The railways in the UK don't work well from the point of view of getting people from A-B, from the point of few of extracting a lot of money from Customers they work extremely well.
Perhaps it should. Surely it must have been tried somewhere?
There are cities with free transit systems however.
No they're not. They are partly funded by general taxation, just like the NHS. However, if you want to drive your car on the road, you can't just drive it. You have to first pay a specific 'vehicle tax' which is per vehicle, per year: https://www.gov.uk/tax-disc
Furthermore, if you want to drive in most of Central London during the day time on a weekday, you have to pay the congestion charge: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge
The angst is because you largely don't have such a choice.