Okay, I'll bite.
About ten years ago, I took a deep dive into the low-priced city bike market in order to buy about three dozen bikes for a rental fleet. We ended up with a name-brand SS bike that came with fenders, chain guard, and basket and retailed for $550. We thought that was the best option. Another $100 would've gotten a 3 speed igh, another $200 (or so) an 8 speed igh.
Just with a quick google search, I can come up with
this and
this, which look to be pretty solid entry-level bikes at very reasonable prices. They do have 7 speed freewheels; you seem dismissive of that, but I think the sort of consumers you are describing don't care. Rather, they will think, "Wow! It's got 21 gears!" And it will serve them well. (Don't forget that you are a cyclist, so you understand the difference between a freewheel and a freehub. Consumers interested in this price point don't know and won't care.)
By the way, the "corporate greed" argument doesn't really hold water, as the market for new bikes is pretty competitive in an economic sense: many producers, low entry barriers, etc. Competition prevents massive markups. Perhaps someone from the industry can tell us whether I am correct, but I'll bet my lunch that markup percentages haven't changed significantly in a long time.
tl;dr: I think there are plenty of reasonable options. Just got to hunt them down.