[robbedpeter]

What the parent comment describes is what people who aren't capable of material or intellectual contribution do to products to create the illusion of value where none exists, or to manipulate users into paying as much as possible regardless of the effective value of the product.

This stifles development of things that are actually useful. It puts money and influence in the hands of people who shouldn't have either, creating bad incentives in the market and within the company. It gives marketing a gloss of false legitimacy, allowing for all the things that have us in a feverish race to the bottom.

Everything you just touted has been achieved despite the Idiocracy fan-fic that seems to be the current mission statement of corporate America.