I think people look at travel videos of Chinese counterfeit markets or tourist areas in popular cities and apply the haggling logic to everything, which isn't appropriate.

And it's like I said in other comments. When I was in Istanbul in the souk or buying souvenirs I haggled like it was an Olympic sport because they were trying to extract a high price out of me for what was a cheap tourist trinket, it's expected there.

But I did a Nepal trip and if the taxi driver told me it was $3USD to get to the other side of town I just paid it, yes the locals would pay $1.72 for the same trip, I didn't care. The difference is a huge deal to him and it means literally nothing to me, and over the course of my entire time in Nepal by aggressively haggling it would have saved me... I dunno... $20?

There's also a difference between buying souvenirs in Kathmandu and buying tea up in the mountains.

A tourist trekking all the way up there and then arguing over literal pennies is demeaning to the person making you that cup of tea.