It ain't so much getting more HD channels, as finding HD content worth watching.
I agree with you. So that is why if a channel has one single show I watch in HD, such as Breaking Bad on AMC HD, it makes it worth it to me to get the channel.
With FIOS, I enjoy having every HBO/MAX in HD because 26 channels as opposed to 4 channels (east/west of the flagship) increases my odds at any given time that there is something to watch. I watch exclusively HD now days with few exceptions.
I watch Breaking Bad in SD, because I don't get the HD channel. I watch hockey games in HD, since Sun Sports only has a handful of Tampa Bay Lightning games in HD each year. I watch all premium channels in HD since they are almost all in HD with FIOS and I watch Fox News and Fox Financial all day while working at home and they are in HD on both FIOS and DirecTV. I really don't watch a lot in SD anymore. I am just trying to eliminate all SD viewing if at all possible.
But you know, it isn't even that SD in of itself is bad. It is the fact that the SD channels are of such bad quality. I have no problem watching an upscaled widescreen DVD. They look great. Not as good as Bluray, but they look good on my HDTV. It is just the crummy SD channels that look so darn bad. I couldn't stand to watch HBO Signature SD feed at this point in time. That is what is so aggravating about HBO On Demand. They don't have any HD, where as Cinemax and the others all have HD in their On Demand catalog. So other than Cathouse from time to time, I pretty much watch no HBO On Demand because it is SD.
I don't even think channel owners require a minimum bitrate on the SD feed. If Bright House Cable wants to squeeze Fuse to a worse than Youtube quality bitrate they can get away with it. But when it comes to HD channels, the cable channel owners not only adhere to the minimum requirement for HD, but they often have a higher minimum imposed upon the cable operators. For example, a cable company is required by Time Warner to carry each of the HBO/MAX HD channels in 8Mbps or higher. They cannot get away with 3 or 4Mbps. With SD, they can get away with less than ideal quality.