I think the crux of all of this boils down to marketing. You can market your widget as a consumable or entertainment and people will not pay. On the other hand, you can market your product as an INVESTMENT to achieving their goals -- and people will quickly take out their wallets.

It connects to what Kathy Sierra has always talked about. Design your product to make your users fell AWESOME and you will succeed. If you do that, people will co-relate paying for the product as making themselves more awesome.