I feel the pain as a matchday fan myself but I think we just have to accept the fact that City v Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs are always going to be big box office.
The compensation comes in that a cheaper game with less demand is just as likely to be as memorable as a dearer one, and often more so. Would I have rather been at Villa last game of the season than at either our games against Chelsea last season? Yet which was the more expensive tie? We all know the answer.
Yes the Derby will always be the Derby but were last season's derbies really more exhilarating than seeing us come back against Palace and seeing Haaland score his second consecutive hat-trick at Forest? Was that more fun than seeing Son take the p out us?
I have done my fair share of moaning about pricing and ticketing but at the end of the day, as others have said on this thread, paying £83 to see Spuds is not the only way to see City. The prices for Cat C games have been decent value this season, especially for parents, (long may that continue), and beyond the first tier of the SS and NS there aren't really too many restricted views in the Etihad. Throw in FA Cup, Champions League and EDS and there are thankfully ways of seeing City reasonably affordably, once you've taken the initial small hit on membership.
We should really start to worry if those more affordable matchday options narrow while S/T remain restricted at the same time but we are not there yet - hopefully the club won't take things that far.
If I'm honest the thing that bothers me most is the price of kids' tickets for mid-tier games, but the idea is you either buy the cheaper games to even it out if you're a matchday regular, or if you're not regular then it's a rare treat.
The price I'm paying to see 12 PL games for me and two kids this season is roughly equivalent to what an ST holder and two kids pays for 19. Not great value when you look it at that way, but in reality one home PL game a month is about right for us at this stage, so that's our kind of season ticket. I suspect City's algorithm knows that too and is designed for folk to put together their own packages.