Aww, this brings back memories. :)
A few years back, myself and a friend of mine missed the trail that goes up to Kredarica, and walked the trail at the bottom of the picture, taking us to the Valentina Staniča mountain home with some steep climbs along the way. Getting back to Kredarica took something like three hours. We were exhausted, but the views, oh man, let me tell you…
While I agree with you completely, the argument for a counter-point would be that exactly because the private company should create as much profit for the owners as possible - it has to be as lean / efficient as possible.
That is not true for “the goverment” as profit is not an encentive to rationalize the work process.
What I find interesting are goverment agencies that operate on both levels. A great example is Ordenance Survey in UK. While they provide a public service, they also sell some of their products commercially to cover some operating costs (hiking maps etc.).