[heddycrow]

I like where you are going with this and love that you dropped Zen here. Permit me to riff/add color, please.

Zen tries to draw a distinction between mental models with an object/subject separation and alternatives.

There are sane and insane reasons why we might adopt one or the other model.

An object/subject thinker might obsess over status symbols, but also the frame itself can lead to discomfort over using the "wrong" part.

Witness something like this in buy/build discussions where cargo-cult thinking plays a bigger part than rational thought. This probably goes well beyond object/subject thinking.

The status symbol thing can be more than posturing for prosperity. Some people get their identity tangled up in brand separate from social concerns.

I talk with LLM's about this sort of thing quite a bit more than I talk with humans. I get irritated when LLM refuses to allow for shorthand language. I hope I don't come across like that.

I agree with what I read as the sentiment from your last line, there's something that can be unsettling about objects carrying more than their intrinsic value.