Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're routinely buying and throwing out $25 plates of food, then you're in a different income bracket than many people. And then, yes, avoiding a $3 app is more nonsensical than for most.
Plenty of university students around me who will order a $8 boba tea and be disappointed that the boba is cooked poorly or the milk ratio isn't good, and then do it again a couple days later. But the difference is that food elicits cravings - you buy it because you imagine how good it'll be if it's done right this time and your body pressures you to buy it. Apps don't do that.
It’s also easier to pay for something that I feel I’m entirely getting as a treat for me. Sure, that snack is $5, but it’s all a “treat”. Software often doesn’t feel like a treat to own, outside of games that is, having to pay for apps you’d just use in every day life feels emotionally more like an annoying tax you have to pay to just continue existing, just like an electricity bill or something. I honestly think that’s the main psychological difference that people aren’t considering or even mentioning.