I’m sure you had a village salad/ Horiatiki in Greece. You can’t eat salad there without having one. It’s too hot for lettuce to grow in most parts during the summer so Village Salad / Horiatiki is the standard in hot months .
Whereas, in North America, our tomatoes suck 6 to 10 months of the year, and winter tomatoes are expensive relative to iceberg lettuce, so the typical Greek salad in Canada and the US became a lettuce salad with a few slices of tomato and cucumber, and there has usually been a $1-$3 upgrade for a Village Salads / Horiatiki (without lettuce), at family restaurants and Greek restaurants in Canada and the US for as long as I can remember.
Plus, I know some non Greek Canadians who won’t eat tomatoes, so their idea of a Greek salad is iceberg lettuce, feta, maybe cucumbers, Greek dressing, hold the tomatoes 
. Why waste good and expensive tomatoes in a salad if some customers won’t eat them? Charge a little more , for the people who will upgrade to the real deal!
