First, to me, nothing is as valuable as the buyer’s pleasure. Whether pleasure of ownership, pleasure of listening, or pleasure of DIY, it’s your money, so do what you want to with it. Kids jerks? Spend their college fund. No problem from me.
But I do think that you are making choices about how you train your brain. It’s not all about what you buy, it’s what you tell your brain you want to focus on.
Lets say you train your brain to listen for the difference between silver plated interconnects, and braided gold. OK, great. You can hear it. How is that a goal that was worthy of you? Maybe it is.
Point is, a lot of things may not sound different at all. Some may sound different but not better.
Are you setting up your tests to guide your ear/brain mechanism to a happier place? If it takes you 20 hours to find a difference between two products, was that worth while?
If some one were to switch your chosen interconnects with other types, would you know in an hour?
Only you can answer these.
Best,
Erik