Because not all people understand what it is reasonable. Many times believe building a site is only typing on a keyboard. And maybe is the same as want to contract a writer to create a best seller and want to pay as data entry.
I explain .. if a designer makes a website… the client asks for changes (let’s say 50% of what they did… the designer builds another option ….let’s say 25%.. and the client agrees… the designer made 1.75 websites… no only one.
It would like to ask a taxi driver to go for 10 places and want to pay only the distance between the first and the last.
Many times client believe a designer should have made the site they want first… but don’t identify that are many many decisions that are subjective.
On the other hand… take as reasonable… the average cost that it can get… and actually “reasonable” is the cost that had paid people for successful projects. Then there is a wide range of prices on the market… that does not indicate clearly what is reasonable.
The other question is why there are people paying for some web developers 70 u$s / hour while others pay only 5 o 10 u$s. Do what people want to only lose money?
Another thing is that programmers are few in humanity as all it is programmed Today, from a machine to make coffee to a supercomputer. , then never will be enough proportion of programmers then always the real value of good programmers will be higher than other professions. The demand doesn’t generate the people that work on it because there will be always people who prefer to work on finance or gym or music or being policeman or sellers.
It’s true… only paying higher prices is not a warranty for getting good work. Maybe the key is to view previous jobs similar to what we want… and set clear boundaries from the beginning.
Another point of view… is that there are many “configurable” providers that offer a website for free or almost no cost. Then some people compare that cost with the cost of asking for a developer. The real comparison should be to compare the cost of buying the music with the cost of contracting a musician to compose a song for us.