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As someone who doesn’t cook, it’s because it takes ages to get a worse-tasting product than what I can buy, it’s messy and I have to clean up afterwards. Frankly, I have better things to do with my time. It would be an ask even if I had a big kitchen and a short commute but otherwise it’s just not on.
Perhaps I’m overextending but I think that before 1950 cooking was done by housewives, employers or landladies. After the 80s it was mostly takeaways and microwaveable meals. The era when a majority of employed people cooked for themselves was almost infinitesimally short.
As someone who does cook:
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What is common among housewives, employers or landladies is that when they cook, they do so for multiple people, often for a large number of them. I'd say that is the crucial difference. (Not that I find your observations incorrect.) In terms of scale, cooking for multiple people makes obvious sense. Cooking meals of one for yourself doesn't. For one, it requires that you keep a meticulously calculated amount of perishable ingredients at home, and you re-stock it frequently. It's just a pain in the butt itself.
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