I've pre-ordered a small handful of PC games right when I started, because they were available for basically 50% off the launch price. I loved and very much enjoyed all but one. When you compare it to the used console games I was buying previously, it was cheaper sooner, but the games were worthless. They have zero resale value and are inherently less valuable to the consumer, especially in any case where they'd be more likely then usual to resell the game, if they didn't enjoy it. 6-12 months down the road the games are selling for a fraction of the cost. Now not only did I waste a ton of money by not having a small amount of patience, I ended up spending a significant amount of money on a game that I didn't at all enjoy, and could have avoided considering free-trial events that occurred later on. I made some other small purchasing mistakes around the same time. Knowing what I know now, I'd have made choices that would have resulted in me spending 1/7th of what I actually did. An amount so large that I could have bought a year or even multiple years worth of games, both indie and AAA, with how I buy games now.

The ignorant/careless spending of others across tons of industries both helps me and harms me. On one hand it gets publishers to ruin countless games with microtransactions and horrible ports because people buy the games at full price in droves either way, but on the other hand, I'd assume so many people fitting the bill early on, essentially, makes it easier for them to discount the game sooner because they already covered their costs and made tons of profit. In a world were everyone was as frugal and patient as I am now, games with a more limited appeal couldn't exist. If everyone was only willing to pay a fraction of the cost they are now, games without an obscene number of buyers not because of limited budgets but rather limited interest, couldn't make their money back on a huge project.