The railway does not exist in isolation. It is part of society and the economy. The economy is about how we manage anything we give financial value to, so it is essentially about how we organise society and permeates virtually all of politics. There are a significant number of people in Britain who don't do much beyond their daily routine because they can't afford it. There are also a significant number of people who can travel around the country, go to the cinema, have a smartphone and go on regular foreign holidays without thinking too much about the money. A tiny proportion of the population own about half of the wealth of the country and their main concerns regarding money are probably about how to invest it. Evening peak restrictions will affect certain groups more than others. So the context is crucial.
As stated earlier in this thread, fare levels are astoundingly inconsistent. I think references to market pricing are often misleading. The TOCs don't manage fares very closely. They increase baskets of walk-up fares by certain percentages. The Pricing Managers don't always know which walk-up fares their TOC sets. They fix anomalies which come to their attention and introduce new fares as necessary. The price levels for individual journeys are largely historical. A former Pricing Manager at Southern recently reviewed the levels at which Off-Peak Day Returns (CDRs) are set. I'd imagine a thorough review based on surveys or passengers and analysis of how passengers react to current fare levels could lead to more revenue being raised in many cases, but there is little interest. Advance fares may be yield managed, but anomalies mean they are not available for all journeys (e.g. Newcastle to Buxton). TOCs providing the "& Connections" parts of Advance tickets may block the lower tiers on all their trains, even though some trains this affects may be very quiet. TOCs have to negotiate to make Advance fares available for journeys involving multiple operators and this doesn't always happen. Of course fare levels (demand management) have to be co-ordinated with plans for the supply, but the TOCs have little control over this. The whole system is a muddle.
I would like to see an analysis of the impact of the Northern evening peak restrictions on the company's revenue and costs, on passengers and on wider society carried out a year or so after they were introduced. I suspect that limited data will be collated and it will not be put in the public domain. It's a shame because the public interest is at stake.