The OP mentions that change in perception of costs in childhood vs adulthood, but there is another psychological (or sociological) factor: desire for increasi

The OP mentions that change in perception of costs in childhood vs adulthood, but there is another psychological (or sociological) factor: desire for increasingly complex (== more blocks) Lego sets among customers. This is similar (obv. not identical) to the digital authoring tools available to everyone today were only available to sophisticated content creators in the past. Of course the digital tools I have seen a massive deflation in costs.