What more money buys you, now and in 1916, is social status. And that's always good for your subjective quality of life.
It wasn't always so---economies around the globe really only took off once the bourgeoisie could buy their way into status.
It goes well beyond that. With more money, I can pay someone to keep my house clean and maintain my yard, own a more reliable car, buy and eat better quality/healthier food. I don't have to care about how much it costs me to go to the dentist, nor how much I have to pay to vacation for two weeks in South America.
You can exercise money to buy social status, but at the heart of it, money buys ease of life. I bet Bill Gates very rarely thinks about how much money he has or how much something will cost him; your housekeeper thinks about that much, much more often.
Another point is about the utility of money. Once you reach a certain level of financial independence, your life is only marginally improved by private jets and private chefs. For instance, if you had $4 million in index funds, you could quit your job and live on an annual salary of $120k. You could hire cleaners, drive a very nice car, eat very good food, have great health and dental insurance, and go on vacation... permanently.
I think more software engineers should be thinking about financial independence, because it's so achievable in this industry.
And even before that: bourgeois attitudes can make a few dollars stretch a lot more. (But on the other hand, having more money lets you get away with less discipline in spending.)