Interesting metaphor. It has been this way since the 1980s. For instance, in 1985/86 it was popular to upgrade your 386sx with an i387 math co-processor which i

Interesting metaphor. It has been this way since the 1980s. For instance, in 1985/86 it was popular to upgrade your 386sx with an i387 math co-processor which is something like adding a cat back exhaust system on your car. Later on increasing RAM, installing QEMM for boosting available memory for DOS games and over clocking and then add on 3D video accelerator cards. There was even a physics add-on card at one point. Mostly these focused on performance gains. The shift towards LED bling and aesthetics is more recent though.