I can't do this with airline tickets, hotel bookings, train tickets, dinner reservations, or any other kind of receipt that allows me to put my butt in a seat at a specified time.

Why are concert tickets special?

> For example you buy four tickets to go with your friends. But you get sick so you offer your ticket to a different friend instead. Oops that’s not allowed so now no one gets to go?

Or you give your friend's names when buying their tickets so they can go even when you can't or you have them buy their own tickets, or you're sick so you get a refund for your four tickets and your friends each buy their own afterwards.

> It’s kind of annoying in practice. For example you buy four tickets to go with your friends. But you get sick so you offer your ticket to a different friend instead. Oops that’s not allowed so now no one gets to go?

Get a refund if you can't go

> Or you buy tickets as a gift for someone.

This is easy part.

> There’s a lot of legit reasons to want transfers, outside of scalping

There of course are but they pale in comparison to what is currently happening with scalping. And as many have pointed out, there are a lot of other "tickets" we buy that are 100% non-transferable, these are because wrong people are making too much money

> Oops that’s not allowed so now no one gets to go?

You sell your own ticket back to the event. Your three friends of course have their names on their tickets, so they can go if they want to.

> Or you buy tickets as a gift for someone.

Do you buy gifts to people whose name you don't even know?