This is the correct answer. I'm not sure there's a decent actual food chain, unless you get technical with places Ruth's Chris and Morton's, which theoretically fall into that category. I'm a capitalist in just about every aspect of my life, and every restaurant is ultimately in the business of making money. But as soon as the food my family will be eating is subject to quarterly profit objectives, I'm officially out. We recently tried Carrabba's for the first time in a decade because I had been given gift cards for $125 total. I couldn't do it. Out of respect for the server and establishment, we smiled, boxed up the food and took it home, only to throw it straight in the trash. Too much salt, overcooked pasta, and everything felt fried. And worse, it still ran us roughly $140 with tip for a family of four. I'm dropping $100+ for a bad meal?
My philosophy, which I developed on countless trips to Disney, is that you either go high end, or you go ultra cheap(or ideally bring some food from home which we do for breakfast and lunch). Both are generally worth what you're paying. Anything in between--the Chilli's/Outback/Carrabba's of the world--is an absolute waste. Not only is it not hard, and much healthier, to prepare way better food at home for a fraction of the cost, as you said, even the service side is almost a lost art at this point. So we eat out maybe once every 2-3 months, and obviously on vacations, with no monetary restrictions at at all, rather than settling for garbage food and a dreadful experience once a week.
Give me a local "something" place where the owner actually cares about his or her craft and takes some pride in what they do, or I'm staying home. I have no idea what goes through the minds of people doing the opposite, except for you bag of hammers comment.
Side note. I worked at a TGI Fridays in school. That helped shape my opinion as well. Don't go there. Promise me you won't go there.