I don't think it's off-base at all. I've been a little guilty of it myself. It's probably gotten worse with social media and the amount of repeat attendees increasing.
I've mentioned how the FFP becomes a bit of a status symbol. Part of the arrogance it instills is compounded by the ability to find/follow favorite scareactors or characters. Scareactors - who, let's be frank, are all divas who want to be stars - buy in to the attention and respond with catered responses. That makes the guests feel more exclusive and special, so they pay more attention to the scareactor, and it continues.
The catch is this is a feature; not a bug. At least when it comes to encouraging guests to keep coming back. Managing it on the scareactor side is harder. There's a fine line between enough and too much. It's crossed often because it's more fun for guests and scareactors when it happens. Squashing it, despite how appropriate it is to so, is never received well.