The VIP tours have been laughed at plenty of times, as have plenty of other upcharges, especially when they are new. Did you not read reactions to the price of the Starcruiser? Or the original paid FP for club level guests?
What I'm reading here is mostly people laughing the price of the upcharge.
Lots of people make unfortunate financial choices every day. Sadly, people losing are large sums of their retirement savings to pure scams, like romance scams and fake kidnapping scams.
Laughing is a way people protect themselves, or try to protect themselves.
Say what you will, but enough people publicly laughed at the Starcruiser that it became unpopular.