they aren't charities and they only exist to make as much money as possible for their shareholders, even if they are a mutual organisation. No different to Boots selling other mass market commodities like Preparation H or sandwiches.
for me, insurance costs relative peanuts with car, bike, home, breakdown & travel coming in at a gross premium under £10 a week. Living in rural Mid Wales helps. I don't feel I am being ripped off.
Where the badness is for me is the utter incompetence of some of these companies in terms of customer service. This only seems to get worse as companies consolidate further and if you can get past the AI chatbot, you often get through to a generic call centre where the screen reader's last call was talking to a Cat Owner from Rhyl about Mr Timkins vet bill for constipation. It's bad enough when a customer has not read their documents properly to understand what is a pretty basic contract but I find it unacceptable when the people you speak to in call centres do not understand the product and make statements that misrepresent the terms or just make up stuff.
Carole Nash, now operating the BMW Motorrad scheme and several other sub-brands, is the epitome of this transition from a relatively small, family owned business specialising in bike insurance to being part of the huge Markerstudy and a tanking reputation for customer service.