Why is steak in Western cuisine always prepared so poorly?

In every single Western style food establishment that I’ve been to in which I’ve had the displeasure of eating their steak (rare), the meat is always dry, tough, and flavourless. Granted, I’m no food connoisseur, but even the most casual eater can only enjoy a meal if it’s…well, edible.

Inevitably, someone is going to tell me that I’ve never had real steak and that X place serves the best steak. That’s not the point. Regardless of the quality of the restaurant in question, the steak is always of vastly inferior quality to the rest of the menu. For the record, I have had real steak, in my backyard. Heck, I’ve cooked unseasoned, unmarinated steaks from Costco that have tasted better than anything I’ve eaten in a Western restaurant.

That leads me to the conclusion that it’s not that Western restaurants can’t make a good steak, but that perhaps in Western cuisine, steak is supposed to taste like a sock?

Someone please enlighten me.