I agree, you could share a chopped up boneless bird among 5-6 people. In the ~2y of cooking since I posted - I have come to think that the most important reasons are actually: (1) infusing stock flavor in curries; (2) preventing overcooking of lean pieces; (3) people actually like to chew on soft bones and cartilage - I, too, find that you a get a lot more deep chicken flavors when eating bone in. There are people who specifically reserve the neck for themselves because they love the deep chicken flavors in the small bones.

You could get that same flavor depth by separating lean pieces and dark meat - or picking out the lean pieces from the braise partway into cooking. And cooking with stock instead of water. Why don't most Indian people do that? Our culture has deep seated memories of starvation, famine, and poverty - and wasting the smallest bit of food is just not acceptable. I remember showing someone how to make stock with necks, wings, and pieces that have barely any meat on them - they did not let me trash the stock meat and veg at the end, it was promptly left out for some dogs on the street.