Yet, if you think about it, your statement "that seems like pretty extreme value for time spent" is not a actual factor. While the way you state it, you might be considered correct; but if you think about finding a penny and picking it up. Suppose you found a penny on the ground on the way to your car. How much did it cost you to pick it up in the first place? How much is your time worth? This obviously depends on a lot of things and varies from time to time and person to person. But for a broad estimate, I sometimes use a ballpark value of $10/hour—which is somewhere between the US minimum wage and the average wage—but you can adjust up or down to fit your preference. If your time is worth $10 an hour, a penny is worth 3.6 seconds. If spotting and picking up a penny takes you more than 3.6 seconds, it’s a loss. So if you want to consider the time that you grind out time in the game, and compare to the value of the items that you gain then add to that, being forceed to do this for some particular item. Well then your time vs value cannot be compared the way you are trying to use for your statement.