It's the imagined prestige factor that those who unnecessarily doled out wads more of cash for something, falsely believe that they somehow have a superior product and that it somehow by association makes them special. But they can not deny the fact that the less costly product does the exact same job, sometimes better, and with less failure rate. When you believe the false propaganda and advertising, you are a witless pawn of the supplier. In the end, it still never raises their prestige factor at all. Their still the hollow, shallow sycophants that they always were. But it does raise their douchiness level by +10. It's the same way with a lot of things.