Been thinking about this thread and it spans other things as well: wine, audio equipment, musical instruments, art, food. Anything based on interpretation of the senses seems to drive conspicuous consumption because it's easy to use it to leverage other people's ignorance to inflate their outwardly perception.
The moment you apply science it devalues it which is why non-scientific words with no quantifiable meaning are used. It's protecting the idea and some ego.
I'm a cheapskate and science tends to keep the prices down