Hasbro does care and wants to make stuff you'll buy. It's one thing I've come to see as fact. But there is a second factor which is tied up with your point about sales. Retailers decide what's selling enough and what isn't. Wal-Mart killed ML, not Hasbro. Hasbro wants to keep making it and taking your money. Problem is Wal-Mart doesn't want to spend the money to sell it to you. Not when there are other figure lines (read movie/TV tie-in lines that sell tonnes more) to sell. And you really don't want ML do be online only. Look at MOTU classics, $20 a pop, 1 figure a month, a pain to get a hold of if you are't there at 6am EST on the 15th of every month.
If they hadn't done all those things the price would have went up a lot more than it did. More expensive oil=more expensive figures. Tell me something how do you justify ML? Beyond they've been around longer. Which is not an answer. MU is cheaper for me, for Hasbro, for Wal-Mart. Which is why it's king. Wal-Mart can stock twice the figures in the same space for 2/3 the price. Hasbro can put out double the product in a year. And can go for the more nice/obscure characters.
Also DCUC has started going for the double dip. Wave 7, Aquaman repaint, 2009 two-packs Batman and Superman. Wal-Mart box set, slight repaints of the new two-pack Batman and Superman. Wave 10, black Batman. Target exclusive wave, Batman and Superman with new heads. And it's only going to get worse.