People are free to stay at little inns, but many travelers have other preferences. I've had similar frustrations with Airbnb, so it helps that there are dozens of alternatives. If you are concerned about how well the owner is treated, there are guides oriented toward the host. One of these points out that there is some compensation for Airbnb fees in that they have the largest community. If you live in a nice place, there's going to be demand to live and visit there, and housing/accommodation prices will rise if supply doesn't keep up. As b_b observed, policy bears some responsibility when Apartment buildings are illegal to build in 76% of San Francisco.
You know what? No. There's a patchwork of federal, state, city and zoning legislation that permits or does not permit transient accommodation and licenses or does not license transient accommodation. All of these regulations were passed through the legislative process, by stakeholders in their municipalities, to maintain or improve the standard of living of the communities they live in and are responsible for. These regulations are not new, are not controversial, and have never been questioned. AirBnB's entire business model is "come at me bro." The fundamental operating principle behind AirBnB is "you don't have the manpower or budget to enforce this." And when people try to pass measures to drum up the manpower or budget, AirBnB spends millions to defeat it. As is their due, of course - grifters gonna grift. But the whole point is not "people are free to stay at little inns" the point is that people settled on and voted on how they want their neighborhoods to run and AirBnB knew they could get away with a smash'n'grab. If AirBnB had the vaguest interest in keeping those places nice they'd handle the lodging tax that pretty much every municipality requires. As it is, they only do it where it's been mandated, saying it's the responsibility of the host to deal with it literally everywhere else. If you live in a nice place, there's going to be demand to live and visit there, and housing/accommodation prices will rise if supply doesn't keep up.
Apartment buildings are illegal to build in 76% of San Francisco.