I agree it sucks. But I can understand the rationale. At peak times, if people try to go to Wendy’s, and it’s too busy, they go somewhere else. At this point the demand is higher than supply. Clearly increasing cost will create more profit.

Long term they are probably hoping that people decide to not all come in a peak times, and the peak is more spread out. This way lines are never long enough for people to just say fuck this and then leave. Less lost sales = more profit.

In reality I can see people just not going, so I agree with you that long term they see less sales. But honestly who really knows, people can be pretty irrational.