Getting back to the original topic, "peoples euphoric craze for crab legs at buffets", my 2 cents, which is all it is worth, but...
Back in the early to mid 70s, in Memphis (to be fair...can't speak for other places), crab legs in restaurants were as big as my arm, and many places served all you could eat on at least one day of the week. These were crab legs, people. Again, to be fair, this was before I ever saw the inside of a casino or casino buffet. What I see 'today' at casino buffets in Las Vegas, Biloxi, Laughlin, are plain scrawny, unappetizing, not worth the trouble.
But, as PJ said, you can get 'runned over' in that area of a buffet by folks piling their plates with match stick sized crab legs. Maybe I just haven't been to the right buffets, but I've not seen those like I had back in the day, except possibly you get one nice large crab claw in a nice restaurant when you order surf and turf.