It's the business model and you are paying for the service. The traditional model is you take the photo, and charge for the print. The price paid for the print is the backbone of the revenue model that has to cover all costs of the business.. not just printing the photo.
People buying the CD are buying it so they don't have to pay for prints.. the CD represents a potential huge loss of income because of the loss of print sales. So you price the CD to offset the loss of print sales and usually to influence the buyer's choices.
It's a combination of replacing lost revenue, shaping the buyers choices, and potential for upselling.
I know you just don't like the price point of the CD.. but look at it relevative.. they are charge $15!!! for a single print. You threw out an example of 20 photos.. the CD is already cheaper than 15 prints.
They money (and prices) have little to do with the actual cost of the media you are buying.. as is common in many industries.. you are paying for a service and instead of paying each photographer you are paying through the items you purchase. The cost per item is heavily based on what you want the minimum revenue per transaction to be and how you upsell people to more.
If any photographer just gave away the full versions for free or cost.. they are basically just putting themselves out of business.
I believe I stated that I don't mind paying for the service...their methods of doing things could be improved to lower cost...and let's face it, they are most likely making a pretty hefty profit on this as is. Disney doesn't do anything that just "breaks even."
You talk about the price being so high due to offsetting costs. If you lower the cost, you'd get more people buying. Seeing $170-200 scares people...especially since they just spent a boatload on a vacation...they wouldn't have as much when they get home!
Well, no, because then I have to pay to have the pictures printed. Also, we just got back, looked at the 237 pictures on the card. 25 of them weren't even of us (they were from Enchanted Tales so I get it). That leaves 212 prints of us. Of those 212 photos, there were approximately 10-12 that were actually wanted.
Paying $170-200 for 10-12 pictures seems ridiculous.
Get rid of the "print" option, lower the price of the CD's (which, as a previous poster stated, is archaic in this day and age...and if you are giving people a digital version, just use a "cloud based" service that allows you to download the larger files once you pay. They could save on shipping...which is getting higher with the rising price of oil) and allow a "pay-for" option within the park with a more expensive price point.
Those people printing pictures may pay a premium for a few great pictures on a card rather than charging everybody to offset the costs for a few.