Would you consider this to be ethical?

So my husband and I have recently been house searching. We chose to rent until I finish my PsyD because we don’t know where we are settling down. We’ve come to realize how absolutely wild property management companies can be. On average, it costs us about $80 to apply to whichever place. This application fee is non-refundable. That part I sort of understand because they have to pay to process our credit check and background check. However, here is the kicker. Many of these companies have 50+ applicants. Assuming each applicant is a couple, that’s about $4,000 they rack up in application fees. But...only one person gets chosen. It’s essentially like buying a lottery ticket. We pay $80 and are up against 20-50 people and then it’s first come, first serve after all. Our cousin just spent $600 on application fees until she found a home. She makes great money and has great credit, she just “wasn’t chosen”. Not to mention, a lot of them want you to apply before seeing the house so you don’t waste THEIR time. I was telling my husband that there should be a cap of people that apply in rounds. For example, a property management company needs to cap at like 5-10 people. Pre-qualify them, then move them into the next round where they pay the app fee but are only up against a few other people. Something about these companies hosting open houses and taking home $5,000 to randomly select one OR even worse, select the first to apply. If it’s first come first serve, why take in more applications when you have 10 already? Again, I understand that it costs money to run the application but not that much. Taking money for the app isn’t necessarily what I’m questioning. It’s the lottery style of applying. We’re talking roofs over peoples heads. Thoughts ?