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People don't buy products or services. They buy better versions of themselves or their businesses.

They buy the results promised not the method to delivering the results.

This is sort of true... but when people don't understand the results promised, the name of the method to delivering the results becomes a proxy; this is one of the functions of buzzwords in marketing.

I agree with the general sentiment, but this idea has its limits: people also purchase loot and other digital products compulsively.

I don't believe they do it to be « better versions of themselves ».

I think this is the exact motivation. They believe they'll be better version of themselves with some more in-game bling. Presumably you wouldn't consider them better, but what matters is that the buyers themselves believe the blingier-but-poorer version 2 will be better.

I don't think in-game loot is more bogus than IRL loot like designer handbags or alloy rims. At least in-game loot doesn't end up in landfills.

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