someone once told me that spending on the game wasn't dissimilar to spending on things like books or nice food or concert tickets. people spend on things that make them happy, and like yea i can understand that.

paying for pixels on a screen? like yea im sure u can reduce everything to their core components: ink on wood pulp, hydrocarbon compouds, 3 hours surrounded by sweaty people to watch other people making air molecules vibrate. in the end, it's really the experience and emotions you're paying for. and you might blame it on low-self esteem, but don't you want to get recognition in some things too? don't assume that this is the only place they're succeeding in, cos most big whales gotta get their money from somewhere.

personally i can't relate to how people are willing to drop thousands of dollars on something that might make them happy temporarily. probably becuase i would never drop several thousand dollars on anything (or not yet at least) but then it's just a personal preference of how we use our money. most heavy spenders are also working adults without student loans XD so there might be a bit of disparity there too.

now bragging about edo minato and spending 600$...that's a different issue and perhaps not applicable to all big whales like u addressed in your post title. assuming he was unprovoked, this guy just has a case of tiny d*ck energy and is overcompensating with this money XD