Just to play devil's advocate, Think about the cost to run a reef business. They have to rent a space, buy the initial equipment to setup, their utility bills are through the roof, I'm sure they lose livestock, and the list goes on. Plus, without the people selling coral where would we, as hobbyists, get our livestock from. I'm sure most people selling reef livestock take at least a year to break even, if they have a good business. I would also guess that many of them end up failing. So if they see an opportunity to sell a coral for a few hundred bucks, that is not greed that is just business. It is easy romanticize about the purity of something and the love of it, but at the end of day these kind of hobbies exist because there is a business behind them that drives the hobby.
For example, I worked in the the fine dining restaurant business, and I can tell you it is a tough business. Many times we lose money on food specials and we barely make money on those 50 dollar steaks. Like I mean a few dollars. Plus, our utility bills are insane. The one thing that keeps the business going is wine. Yeah at the local liquor store you can buy the chardonnay for 9.99 a bottle, we sell for 7 dollars a glass. that's a HUGE markup, but people accept it because they like the restaurant, and they want it to exist.
(I am a consumer and I in no way have any business relation to any one selling coral, and I have never sold a coral, other than for credit at a LSF.)