When I did drywall we'd quote insane prices like that for small patch jobs. I asked my boss about one of those bids and he said he'd quote them that high because he didn't want the job, but if they took it he do it with a smile and make sure it was perfect.

I think a lot of it was just that I got a company that overcharges for that particular service.

Their rates for other stuff (e.g. refill refrigerant, service AC, replace compressor) were much more reasonable.

They actually connected all the wiring after I ran it for 1/10th of the cost of running it, despite taking the same amount of time as I did to run it.

But I also don't doubt that many people (high COL area) will just end up paying the price.

Is it overcharging, or fixed price charging. Running wires is typically a much larger project than it was in your case; and there is an adverse selection where people are more likely to hire for the more difficult jobs. Because of this, their price point for wireing probably assumes they will be going through walls, the floor, snaking it through the wooden frame in the floor/ceiling. The other tasks you mentioned all seem like they would be fairly consistent in terms of time and effort, so a fixed price is reasonable.