This upsets me so deeply in my core that so many companies do this instead of creating anything new for a customer to buy. I can't even process that someone would be mentally disturbed enough to even think of this, and not feel any shame.
That’s why they say not to “buy things and spend money on experiences instead ” and enshittify everything instead of creating new things. It’s not because an “experience” is actually better it’s because it’s easier to make one than make a useful or novel object.
Why make a new thing when you can just extract more money from people with less effort and there isn’t really anything to “make”.
The incentives are all wrong.
The ones not dying in a deathbed, or just a really crappy one, for example. When your environment constantly irritates or even hurts due to its quality, it is pretty rare to even spend and hour or two not thinking about that.
But most young people today have never experienced that. That's a good thing, but it leads to some very weird claims.
I bought a speedboat a few years ago. And the memories I have been able to create with my friends and family because of it are irreplaceable. Fishing and camping trips, exploring areas only reachable by boat, etc…
Funko Pops? Meaningless plastic garbage. To me at least.
Boardgames and videogames? Hundreds of hours of entertainment I get to share with family and bond with my kids over. I have even purchased arcade cabinets of games I loved in my childhood that I now get to share with my own kids (on free play mode), and restoring the cabs has been a bonding activity with my kids.
There is nothing wrong with buying “things” if they can be used to create sentimental value.
I don’t need a deathbed to be able to look back and realize I missed out a lot because I didn’t want to buy a “things” at the time.
Humans have created sentimental value value out of objects for millennia. It’s human nature.