I work from home and get paid an enormous salary. I literally do not care. But (1) in turn I make decisions which are purely convenience based because of that disposable income and (2) I'm just one vote.
The message you'll be selling to everyone else is: "hey, that multi-thousand dollar vehicle you use for getting to work because there's no public transport and your job requires you on-site? Pay more money to have it."
Or did the US not just have an entire election apparently determined by the price of eggs and the cost of living?
You are simply ignoring that there are generally economic thresholds before the best answer is to do something different, and excises and other fees simply modify costs but don't change the overall picture.
People with more disposable income have much more ability to make long term, efficient economic choices by forgoing short term gains or even taking losses.
It's similar to subsidizing roof top solar panels: there's a not unreasonable argument that this is just a hand out to the fairly wealthy who own houses, when we could more efficiently use that money in a government program to build industrial scale solar which benefits everyone through net lower emissions/prices.
