I've lived in Austria for decades. I've hiked hundreds of hills and mountains here, but never been to the top of Großglockner, the highest mountain in Austria, for basically the same reasons you list here. Everything nearby is overpriced. There is a line of vehicles to get up the mountain, then a line of hikers to the top where you'll have 3.7 seconds to stand before the next hiker wants their 3.7 seconds at the top. If the weather is overcast that day, your view will be about 50 meters to nothingness as you'll be standing inside a cloud.

Instead I go hike one of the countless other peaks from the countless other valleys (Austria is 70% mountainous) with my wife and our dog. The peak might be a few hundred or a thousand meters lower, but so what? It is just as beautiful. We often walk for hours without seeing another person.