You have no idea what would constitute value for anyone other than yourself or even how they might perceive value in the first place. You are making judgements from a frame of reference that belongs only to you. Of course most rich people see no value in expensive hi fi. So? Is there some logic here that escapes me? No one that I know feels that hi fi is the only thing that matters in their life. What a curious construct to make such a dubious conclusion. This is the only way to get value from expensive hi fi? Your "school of thought" about expenditures applies to everything. I get tremendous pleasure from listening to my fairly (by WBF) expensive Hi Fi. I spent 2 years listening nightly to get me past the death of my wife. Growing up it was the glue behind several lifetime friendships. It is a spiritual journey for me. Speaking only for me and my frame of reference the quality of the gear allows me to be lost in a kind of awake meditation. Transfixed. That's me. You want to judge my 'value"? Good luck
I was expressing a utilitarian approach. The "school of thought" I was referring to is called Hedonic Adaptation or the Hedonic Treadmill.
Sadly I have met people for whom hifi seemed to have overtaken their life, at the expense of their relationships. I had a client whose wife gave him an ultimatum to choose between motor racing (he ran his business to fund a GT team) and her, so he chose motor racing.
People attain various points of obsession and to the extent that an obsession dominates their lives it can dominate their finances. Audiophilia is often referred to as an addiction and the most destructive of addictions, like drugs and gambling, ruin the finances and lives of millions of people.
I met my wife though a shared love of dance. She was a ballet dancer. It's been an important part of our marriage. We have many other cultural interests as well. I don't mix aestheticism with spirituality (being religiously observant).
Someone could be obsessed with hifi, ballet or drugs and spend all their money on it. Our societal values consider some obsessions good, others bad. Personally I'm a believer of everything in moderation. Sometimes I wish I was more obsessive.
Of course hifi is of value to different people at different levels, including me. I'm not judging anyone, whether they only have a pair of headphones (like one of my kids) or have a house full of expensive hifi. Hedonic adaptation postulates that after a point spending more money only has transitory benefit, probably best illustrated by people who constantly "upgrade" cables.
Of course hifi is small change compared to cars. My father used to have an expensive car. He used to go on about how I would inherit it, as if I would enjoy it like he did. When he died, the first thing I did was sell his car (my sister needed the money) and used most of my share to buy a piece of Korean ceramic. It hangs in our kitchen gives me pleasure every day.
Without wishing to be controversial, to me high-end hifi seems to be just another transitory technology. It emerged in the 1950s (thanks to full frequency sound and to a lesser extent stereo). Due to population growth, globalisation and advances in technology (principally the change from physical to streamed data), I would expect to see 2-channel static hifi largely disappear in my lifetime. I mostly listen through ceiling speaker/ights and wireless headphones.
