It's mostly consumers doing it to themselves. Some people aren't content with what they've bought unless they can also believe that it's the best or that they couldn't have possibly bought anything better.
It doesn't take all that much work to massage the minds of these people into believing their own bologna.
Unless you're upgrading every year to premium best-in-class parts PC gaming is relatively inexpensive as far as hobbies go. You can still build a decent rig for around $1,000 that can last you for years if you're frugal and buy when things are on sale. Even games are cheap once you factor in Steam sales and the like.
People will spend loads more if they like fishing, etc. People who are into cars can spend money on parts that make scalped GPUs look cheap by comparison. People into cocaine will spend as much money as they have on it. PC gaming is inexpensive for most gamers.
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