I think it’s the work that goes into it, at least for me
Money abstracts it too much. Sure that game cost $20, let’s say an hour of my job time. But because it’s the weekend and money has obfuscated this fact a bit I just buy it and move on.
But a game that takes an hour or more to find, download, install, and properly get running? I just did that work on my own free time with no obfuscation, so I’m more likely to want to reap the reward of it
For example: spent a couple hours turning my old hodgepodge of emulators I’ve been using since 2014 into a nice Retro arch installation that my steam deck can also fully utilize a couple weeks back. Because of that I spent some time downloading old games to play, mix of old faves and ones I never got around to.
After all that work it’s all Ive really been playing lately, and the cycle shall repeat I’m sure