Anonymous wrote:The real answer is quantity. A cow only has so much of each cut. The hanger steak, flat iron, flank, culotte (picanha) are all either single small muscle or two (one on each side). One cow has 1 hanger (diaphragm) whereas one cow has 2 huge strip loins, 2 huge rib racks, and 2 large tenderloins. So hanger or the other steaks you mention are just harder to get enough of. Hanger is more likely found in smaller French bistros or other. My family gets hanger pretty routinely at whole foods and it is cheaper than any other cut except sirloin.
This.
I buy my beef by the side and have to all dry aged. For a self proclaimed steak expert, OP has zero awareness of the anatomy of a side of beef. I love flat iron. When I get my side of beef (which is half a beef) you know how much flat iron steak is yielded out of the hundreds of pounds a side weighs? Maybe two 4oz steaks.
Now you tell me OP how in the heck every streak house in the USA can possibly stock and sell flat iron? Use your brain.