You are describing indirect impacts though. The exporters does not directly pay tarrifs except if they're also the importer, or acting as a facilitator on behalf of the customer. The change in demand is indirect - because it can only happen if customer behavior changes. Does the consumer care about 100% tarrifs on a $1 product with no internal competitors? Probably not. Demand may be completely unaffected, and in any case that's a problem for the importer who has to clear things through customs, not the exporter who simply has to label things appropriately like they always have.

But that's not what people think: People think the tarrifs work like a bill from the US government - like taxes, where they understand it's possible (though again, generally not how) to wind up owing the government more money in September.

What they imagine is very clearly something that looks like that - that companies directly pay some fee to access the US market and then sell things as normal. Or will be taxed some extra money after selling things to the US.

Yes it's all wildly inconsistent on the slightest inspection, but people are relating to this on a vibes level and then generally inventing the justification post facto because they certainly never thought about tarrifs till this president.