I get what you're saying since I don't love the mechanic either in traditional games but I look at this as a business expense since land is producing sellable goods for real money.

In business, paying more for higher productivity is normal as I'm sure you know. And I think its great that the payment each business makes goes directly to the community. That, to me, is brilliant. Overall I think each land owner is a business owner and we need to weigh the pros and cons of investing more at any given time based on market conditions.