I think that restaurant analogy is pretty bad. Driving customers to a competitor is a risk you take when locking them out of your restaurant, and those customers could also be lucrative VIP customers as well, not just schleps from the street. If that mega VIP ever stops coming to your restaurant, and you've lost your other VIP/customer base, you'll be hurting big time. This can lead to leverage the mega VIP has over you, as they know you've overcommited to them, and can tighten the screws.
Yet this is what practically all non fast-food restaurants do. And kind of how general strategy goes for many businesses.
I know the few places I frequent often, I get a table mostly right away if anything is available, regular staff knows what I want, more or less, and I get what I expect, mostly because I have a relationship with the vendor.
I tip well. Chat everyone up, etc.
You don't think Apple or TSMC does this?
I've been in that type of relationship in that industry. That's really how it kind of works. It's not even the most $$$$, but relationship and longer term leverage.
Do you reserve the restaurant exclusively for yourself? No. So this scenario is not really similar at all to skipping the line at a restaurant just because you visit often and tip well(which means you are paying a premium here). It's turning away the entire line for a single patron. The restaurant better make sure that's in their best long-term interest before pissing off the other patrons. Also the number of patrons willing to shell out for leading-edge lithography is probably in the single digits. TSMC can't rely on foot traffic to pick up for lost business elsewhere.
