Wrong Neil. Yes there is a market that buy their upholstery from the likes of DFS & your arguement applies. However, pitch your upholstery cleaning to the market that doesn't - and pays 4 to 5 thousand for their lounge soft furnishings & you will find there is plenty of business there. Added bonus is that they are nearly always reasonable to clean - i.e. no mingers
I could have elongated my post which would have covered your point but went for the short answer!
As a percentage I would say well over 80% of my suites both material and leather come from the worlds of DFS and World of Leather, which have been trashed to within a whisker of their lives. These people rarely are willing to pay what equates to 50% of the brand new purchase cost.
On the other hand people who pay £1,000s for new tend to look after things better, so yes cleaning can be easier, but equally I have found a sizable number of these people only want to pay 'lower' rates for their cleaning, because these people classify all and any type of cleaning as just cleaning.