They’re not competing with you or me in the conspicuous consumption game. They’re competing with all the other rich people.

I swear bro, just let me add one more gigabyte. I swear, we’re gonna get to AGI. Just add one more gigabyte. Just let me add one more gigabyte. Just let me add one more gigabyte. I swear. I swear. I swear. I swear, we’re gonna get to AGI. Just one more gigabyte and just make it bigger. Just make it bigger. We’re gonna get to AGI. We’ll get there. We’ll get there. We’ll get there. Just make the model bigger. I swear.

Pure rent seeking. It’s not the only example. So many products have artificial defects deliberately added by the manufacturer so that they can then charge you to disable the defect.