If you derive more than $8 of value from something, then buying the $8 thing is not explicitly off the table. But if you can get the exact same thing for free,

If you derive more than $8 of value from something, then buying the $8 thing is not explicitly off the table. But if you can get the exact same thing for free, or even just for $7 elsewhere, it would be really dumb to buy it for $8. The cost that it takes to provide a good or service is useful for estimating the cheapest available offering. No one is actually going to sell something at cost, but in an efficient market with lots of competition the margin should be whittled away to something very low. If someone is charging significantly more for something than it costs to make, it means they are abusing their market position. Monopolies still need to price their offerings at a point where people don't rage quit and not buy at all, but their goal is to get as close to that number as possible while staying below it for the optimally large section of their customers. Just because things could be worse doesn't mean they're good and you should be happy with the situation.