Wtf are you talking about?

Looking at the thread you linked, it seems like this is some pretty in the weeds drama. And it is driven by a single dev. So I'm confused by how you think this is some society-wide trend.

Isn’t that the same as saying that one values a pen more than the author who uses it to write something down?

I feel like your analogy is flawed. As a consumer, I don't care about the pen or the author, really. I care about the book.