Shoddy I am not pissed at all. But since you gave a very wholehearted reply, here's my two cents regarding value.

If we are just talking about the juice and its taste, then you must be able to have tasted it before to know it's not better or worse than something else. If I never had a bottle of ETL, I would always want a bottle and I would never know that ETL isn't as good as [insert any bottle here]. Therefore the first pour/bottle to try is always going to be priceless because the entire foundation value judgement is based on trying it. At that time the real determination of "worthiness" is the thickness of wallet.

If we are talking about the hype and not just the whiskey. Well hell yeah everyone is talking about it and no one has ever said a bad thing about it and shit I have just not seen anything like it. Of course owning a bottle makes you feel good about yourself and allows you to brag about it. If someone spends $200 and purchase a bottle that he can put on display and show off to people, kudos to them and frankly that's what many people do with pappys, btacs, and other things anyways.

And lastly...bourbon is a really cheap hobby. Consider everything else in life...women, houses, cars, diamonds, what makes /bourbon so fun is that people get worked up paying $20 instead of $15 for mellow corn. Seeing people working tirelessly to score their dream bottle really relates to me. Let it be Blanton's but you've got somewhere to start, right? It wastes so much time but as whiskey nerds this is where we enjoy ourselves and make ourselves happy. And happiness is priceless.