Ken, what you describe is very common. The incentive structure for academics is to publish in the journals of greatest prestige, which are generally not OA. A prestigious journal can generate a good deal of revenue for its publisher, which the publisher will understandably be concerned about losing. There are certainly other business models that work besides the subscription model, but I won't argue that the other models are as profitable - at least at this time.
Luckily, open access can be acheived even without OA journals. The vast majority of publishers allow authors to self-archive their articles, in some cases even with a Creative Commons license. If authors choose to publish in prestigious, toll-access journals, they can still make the article available gratis online. Educators, then, can point their students to the free online copy, rather than licensing reprint permissions from the publisher and buying a printed copy.
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