I agree with you, except that a dollar a day is far too small a tip.  I usually do five bucks a day, maybe a bit more if I'm traveling on business and it's a high-end hotel.  Even that is a tiny proportion of the cost of the room.

Those folks aren't getting hedge fund manager wages, and they have one of the dirtiest jobs in all of creation.  I have known a few women who used to be hotel/motel chambermaids, and they have hair-raising stories of indescribably filthy guests.