“Finally, I got in touch with the lead designer at IKEA who had picked the photo more than 10 years ago. I ask him why he picked the photo, and he told me that the first thing they design at IKEA is the price.
This photo was just very, very cheap, and that’s why they picked it.”
We {makers | artists | artisans} want to create something that's great, or beautiful, or complete. But commercially, what's viable is the (forgive the cliche) Pareto solution. This photo is 80% of a great photo, at 20% of the price. I tend to forget that the 80% solution is an option to consider when I'm working on a project.
I coincidentally live in Amsterdam and also have been learning photography, not because of any intrinsic interest but because my wife said "buy an SLR because we'll be having kids in a few years, and I want to have nice photos of them." We now have a baby (and many wonderful photos), but I find myself really frustrated that I've put significant effort into learning the technical part of the skillset and she has not. But when I really consider the imbalance, it's true that she can get the 80% result with point and shoot auto or my presets, and there's no reason for me to get judgmental that she doesn't make more of an effort.