For you, it looks like a mutually beneficial transaction between you and the buyer. It is exactly that, in isolation. It screws your customers a little, but all within bounds of fair play. However, while you're playing this game only once, the buyer is playing the iterated variant: they make the same kind of deal with other people, who are just like you.
The problem is: what looks like a series of independent mutually-beneficial transactions, is actually a series of correlated transactions. Each such deal makes the particular market segment worse off for both customers and individual owners like you. It's a subtle thing at first, but after enough such deals, the whole thing collapses: the remaining owners, who didn't get the deal yet (or refused), find themselves unable to compete with what's now a corporate chain of previously owner-operated businesses, and they sell out too, or just close shop. Customers end up being massively screwed. Then there are the usual secondary effects to the community fabric, that happen when mom-and-pop stores get replaced by corporate franchises.
The above is the problem. Now what makes the buyers (PEs) blameworthy is that they're fully aware of how this plays out. They understand the problem described above, and they do their thing anyway, because what's a problem for you and me, means even more profit for them. The mutually beneficial transactions are a bait - the buyer seemingly leaves money on the table, but in reality, they're just ensuring they can line up enough such purchases to collapse the market segment, and mine it for all its worth.
The problem is: what looks like a series of independent mutually-beneficial transactions, is actually a series of correlated transactions. Each such deal makes the particular market segment worse off for both customers and individual owners like you. It's a subtle thing at first, but after enough such deals, the whole thing collapses: the remaining owners, who didn't get the deal yet (or refused), find themselves unable to compete with what's now a corporate chain of previously owner-operated businesses, and they sell out too, or just close shop. Customers end up being massively screwed. Then there are the usual secondary effects to the community fabric, that happen when mom-and-pop stores get replaced by corporate franchises.
The above is the problem. Now what makes the buyers (PEs) blameworthy is that they're fully aware of how this plays out. They understand the problem described above, and they do their thing anyway, because what's a problem for you and me, means even more profit for them. The mutually beneficial transactions are a bait - the buyer seemingly leaves money on the table, but in reality, they're just ensuring they can line up enough such purchases to collapse the market segment, and mine it for all its worth.