It's all economics. Restaurants only exist because there's a market for them. The customer gets the product they pay for. If the market goes away (as it has), the businesses will go away. If people are willing to pay more, then some sort of business will return to fulfill that market.

And…this is capitalism. You seem to think capitalism should be something different. At its base, capitalism is I provide a product or service that you want, and it's cheaper (from your perspective) to buy it from me than build it / raise it/ create it / whatever yourself. We've been conned into believing capitalism is entirely something else, it's stocks and bonds, and going public and creating third order derivatives to shift risk onto some unsuspecting entity seeking higher returns.

20% return sounds awesome, right? It's about $1000 a year. The entire capitalization of a given restaurant (of the size/style I invest in) is about US$350,000. That's enough to rent, build out, and equip the space, pay for all the various fees, hire the initial crew and initial marketing. If they're successful they start paying back the investment in about a year. IF they're not successful 1) I lose the money (that's the risk) and 2) they typically fail fast, within 60-90 days of opening.

I had one restaurant that opened to great fanfare mid–2012. In October it was flooded due to hurricane Sandy. It never reopened. Another six months it would have been on better footing, but that first year you're upside down in debt and the insurance companies know that if they drag their feet long enough the business will be forced into bankruptcy by creditors who will settle for a meager distribution from insurance.

I mostly know about restaurants and software companies and…while software companies have more flexibility right now, I don't know of any small company that just hoards a ton of cash as a routine business practice. Your investors will demand that it get distributed as part of regular dividends or a special dividend. If you're public a “shareholder activist" will buy the minimum amount of shares necessary to make a shareholder action to divest the cash or replace management.

The entirety of small business in the US is you raise some money some how, you open the business, you pay off your debts and investors, and enjoy the profits (if any) or you close. If you (again, as a small business, and not someone with access to capital markets) were to bank 60-90-120 days of operating cash and your creditors or investors learned that, you'll be turfed out of your company, or lose access to credit and investment, or a combination of both.

And to your point: you're right, the customers could (and likely will) let the businesses fail. And then they'll blog and whine about how "My City has Changed!" and why are all restaurants now variations on Taco Bell.

Honestly, I don't see any of the restaurants I'm invested in reopening. I'll be out roughly US$50k. About 180 employees will be out of jobs. And it's not because no one donated to their gofundmes, I just don't think it's a viable business in a Covid-19 world.

I think there will be some sort of restaurant experience post Covid, but it'll be split between low end fast food take out/delivery and high end ($100/pp or more plus drinks). Barring widespread testing and/or a vaccine, the local diner, restaurant, hipster mayonnaise fetish joint, is dead.