CAPTCHAs are over (in ticketing)

Could someone explain why tickets aren't sold via an auction mechanism? Surely that's the only fair way to distribute anything of limited supply

The answer is mentioned in the article. Not all concerts want only people with means to attend. The venue might want to be accessible to low-income members of the community, or it might be a benefit concert, with free tickets and a donation drive.

That's only "fair" in a certain, academic sense, which claims that willingness to pay more money makes someone more "deserving" - completely ignoring socioeconomic status.

That also offends a lot of people who oppose the above reasoning.

It's "fair" in any society that has capitalism. Going down the rabbit hole of deciding who deserves money is playing God.

What's wrong with giving out some free tickets to low income members of the community?

Nothing in theory, but ticket sellers probably don’t want to get into the means-testing business.

That's a circular self-justification.

You can't hand out money (which you're doing if you're giving away something of market value for nothing) without taking on the responsibility of deciding who gets it. Even charities have to put in the work.

How are concert tickets different to airplane tickets?

Allocation of scarce resources is based on demand for them, expressed in monetary terms. "Deserving" has nothing to do with it. I may deserve a ticket, but not even want to go.

You can if you just DGAF, like TM. Reminded of this sketch:

https://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml