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Despite plunging attendance they have for the most part been making money, primarily by choosing a rebuild path that at its core allowed them to cut payroll significantly.
I'll go a step further with your analogy, not only were Lincoln/Armstrong experienced trustees, Lincoln was a trustee in what amounts to the entertainment business. I suppose we shouldn't wonder that he sees winning baseball games as secondary to the fan experience at the ballpark.
Fan focus group convened, representatives of Mariners' brass, when they hear complaints about the boatload of losses they've been asked to endure and the complete collapse of the team's credibility within the baseball world, brush it off with the question, "Yes, but did you have FUN?!"
I realize this line of comment is passe now that we're supposed to be poised to break out of the cycle of futility this year. But I still think it's revealing of the nature of the ownership, in lean years and in plenty. Even in the previous years of plenty they exhibited the same trait.
I grew up with a franchise whose soul was that of the original architect of it's success, Branch Rickey. At the time no franchise paid more attention to fan experience than the Dodgers. After all, they built Chavez Ravine as the first of the modern ballparks, those that incorporated fan amenities. But Rickey had an even greater zeal to compete and win, and he left no stone unturned in his quest to do so. Once the O'Malley's sold it, the soul of the franchise departed with them.