1) You can always get the lower deductible plan. Nothing stopping you from doing that. You can also use a tax-advantaged HSA to make up the deductible shortfall with your HDHP. A savy investor such as yourself should easily be able to crunch the numbers and choose the best options at your annual enrollment.
2) Insurance companies still control costs by putting limits on costs for doctors visits and the formularies. You see this in who you can see "in-network" and which drugs are covered. You also see this in your explanation of benefits when you see a doctor (ie, the negotiated rates and not allowed charges).
3) Some charges are covered pre-deductible - 100% of preventative care services; potential cost-sharing for maintenance medications (such as inhalers).
Now for a little story with #4) Before the ACA, individual health plans that were worth anything in terms of coverage were incredibly expensive. I had a self-employed uncle who put off his own routine care, since he only had a catastrophic policy that only covered hospitalization. Turns out, the symptoms he was experiencing were the result of stage IV colon cancer. He had been looking forward to getting real insurance under the soon to be open marketplaces. Instead, he died before that could become a reality. For some icing on the cake, his catastrophic plan literally covered only the hospitalization. There were doctors bills (who were affiliated with that hospital) to pay directly out of his estate. What a fucking crock of shit system that was, so take your poetic waxing about the past and shove it where you could only see it with a colonoscopy.