This isn't a new "trend" at all and it's always been this way. Cats with wonderful stats for as low as 100L have been part of KC for as long as I can remember; my first cat was 150L and I thought he was pretty awesome with his pink fur and ody fire&rain eyes among other traits, at the time he was considered well-endowed stat-wise.
To be honest, I probably wouldn't have gotten into breeding KC if I hadn't found this little boy for the price I did in a time where I never spent an exorbitant amount of money in-world; 100L and under was all I'd spend on anything because I wasn't online much. I also wouldn't have been able to convince my friends to play KC with me either if it weren't for this shop or the few others we found around The Borough. Obviously now is a different story regarding spending money in-world for me personally..
Just giving a positive anecdote about the benefits of cats for lower prices! Why? Because in the end, you aren't going to change the vending habits of others. Might as well look at the positive aspects!
I think there's a lot of assumptions being made about those who sell for particular prices and deeming their cats being "degraded". Ultimately, it's up to each person to determine what they wish to set their cats at and they'll sell it for that no matter what's said here.
Some people are here as investors to breed and support their SL and RL lives, some enjoy the thrill of the social aspect of auctions and seeing their breeding projects desired at said auctions, some are here to hopefully land some first discoveries through the wondrous cat gacha with every holiday, some are collectors who love snagging extras from each holiday to offer for newcomers to purchase later, some people are here to share this hobby with others and don't really care about the money aspect as long as they can make this hobby for accessible to others, whether through low prices or giveaways, etc..the list goes on and on. There's all types of people in KittyCatS and I don't think anyone is purposely trying to "degrade" their breeding project results with such prices mentioned in your post.