The more unrealistic part is that there's this ridiculous skew on home prices. I mean, that's most HGTV shows, but still. Just not very central to what most Americans would face.

I think some of what you call "staged" is more just them being selective about what to actually put on the show, since obviously everything can't be on there. But yes, they need to add some drama. Like how it just so happens that EVERY flip has a sudden, random problem that's way expensive to fix and might ruin the whole thing... So they can complain about how they're going to lose money, then end up making $60k on it anyway.