Ajnaro,
I lived in Brazil for a long time and agree to a certain extent with what you are saying. The hard-assed tactics which were instituted under Leyton Russell in the early nineties were horrific and I had a huge fight for month on end with state about it.
That being said however, visa charges were instituted years ago by Brazil as an indirect tax on travellers to the country (yes, I know that the Brazilian press and consulates abroad say the opposite, but I know for a fact that it was this way).
Also, the Brazilian visa is a FORMALITY in 99% of the cases partially as a tit for tat with those countries that require them of Brazilians, as you just stated, people get them the second time around. Now we both know the reason for this, don't we.......
In any year between 3 and 7% of Brazilians who travel to the US jump ship and stay and work illegally, I know that, you know that and the governments know that. There are estimated to be over 70,000 people living illegally in the US from just the state of BELO HORIZONTE alone (let alone Rio and Sao Paolo, etc.). Over 100,000 illegal Brazilians are said to be currently living in South Florida, etc. etc. This is in fact the reason and as a matter of fact if less than 1% of Brazilians "jumped ship" in a three year period, none of you would need visas anymore (just look at Argentina, they were in the same boat as you and got the visa waivers -- then again they also just lost it due to their crisis).
I should compare the above with the fact that when I lived in Brazil I had a talk with the gentleman who was Brazilian Ambassador to the UK at the time, he estimated that there were approximately 3,000 US citizens living illegally in Brazil at that time and less than 1000 UK citizens.
Again, just so you don't get me wrong, I think that the way the visa process is treated in Brazil is terrible and the state people that work the consulates are terrible. There are however reasons that led it to be that way.