While no one has to justify anything, and it is true that "high end' has always been expensive, but that was for a reason, "expensive parts and construction"; now we have totally absurd prices for many items, and those prices only exist because the rich have gotten much richer, so rich as a matter of fact that they simply buy the most expensive and assume it is the best.
I worked for rich people in the 80's, and they were always "cost conscious"; however, I don't believe those same people are cost conscious today, because there are ways that rich people have made "astronomical profits" since then, and when you earn that much excess cash, simply buy the most expensive and assume it is the best.
There are so many of those people around, that some manufactures test the limit at to how much they will pay; compare the most expensive turntables and cartridges to get an example; also don't leave out the most expensive interconnects.