There may be a wing "shortage" to some extent, but it's also a byproduct of chicken wing economics.
A whole chicken can easily feed a family of four. The "wing" portion of that same chicken is half an appetizer.
That means if you want to eat "chicken", killing one bird provides 3-4 meals. If you decide you want to eat "wings", it probably requires the death of 3 birds for a single meal.
Beef tenderloin is expensive because on a cow that yields 400+ lbs of meat, there are two tenderloins weighing about 4-5 pounds each. So what is one of the most desired cuts of beef due to its tenderness is only 2.5% of the yield. Hence it's expensive.
The same is true of wings. A chicken might yield ~5 lb of meat, two wings (4 wing "pieces") is maybe 8% of the weight of the bird. Yet because of the social nature of eating "wings" and their prominence as bar food, they are in high demand.
We expect them to be cheap, because wings BECAME bar food by virtue of being cheap. But they're a victim of their own success, where now so many restaurants are offering boneless wings, using what was previously the most expensive and desired part of the chicken (breast) instead, to save money.
Personally I don't know what's so great about chicken breast. IMHO the thigh is the most flavorful part of the bird. When McDonald's craved to public demand to make "all white meat" McNuggets, the quality went down significantly IMHO. Put that dark meat back in! That's the good stuff!
