If everyone is shopping with coupons, then everyone is paying full price anyway. They can't just give away their profit margin, so the more people who use coupons, the higher the "retail" price needs to be to compensate. From the perspective of all customers' purchases combined, coupons are a zero-sum game. They only give the illusion to individual customers that they're getting a better deal.
That being said, I do love getting a $50 discount when I buy something expensive from Tower. It's a great marketing gimmick.
Regarding buying different brands in protest -- have you bought a Horizon product lately? (Losi, Vaterra, ECX, Spektrum) They already don't allow discounts, and their product prices are higher as a result -- $550 for a Ten-SCTE -- but there are noticeably fewer corners cut in the design and manufacturing of those products. My Baja Rey has gotten a couple "ooh shiny" upgrades, but I basically run it stock, and it holds up to punishment that most other brands would need upgrades to survive. I even kept the stock tires on that truck, something I haven't done in a long time.
