Personally I value (lack of) variance much more than absolute duration: I can easily plan around a either a 19 or 22 minute commute as long as that's consistent -- it's the needing to allow for 20-40 (looking at you, MUNI) that made planning hard, and that I'll pay a premium to avoid.

20 days x 2 trips a day equals 40 minutes. If you have two people in your household that jumps to nearly an hour and a half of time savings per month for $56. Not horrible. This doesn't factor in qualitative benefits of being closer to other amenities (that tend to be near to train stations).

The high rents are caused by "economic rents" -- politically created scarcity by using zoning laws to artificially limit housing density and also by the overuse of historic landmark status. Both of these actions make the land artificially scarce and therefore people pay more for rent than they would in an efficient market without the market failure of the "economic rent."

The result is that rents pay more than they should without the market failure and landlords like Donald Trump earn far more than they would if the zoning laws were fixed.