Are you hurt by your neighbor's Rolls Royce?

Diminishing Returns is pondering the $ 50 hobby horse in LotRO, and thinks that it is like the tree in the forest philosophical dilemma: "Players’ rage is not directed at the actual horse (which they will rarely encounter) but the idea of the horse and what it represents." Most people agree that Free2Play designs in which the free players are armed with sticks while the paying players get mega-cannons are bad (I hear WarZ works like that). But what about items shops selling expensive fluff?

World of Warkraft...