If the cloak is the best thing to wear because of its price, it still isn’t sunk cost.
It’s when the cloak is worn because of its cost, despite not being the best thing in the wardrobe, that sunk cost applies.
If the price correlates with the amount of effort you put into convincing yourself to enjoy wearing it, and that effort correlates with how much you enjoy wearing the cloak later on, then yes the price is correlated with the utility of wearing the cloak.
If this price-causes-effort-causes-enjoyment chain brings the total net utility of the cloak from “not the best thing” to “the best thing”, then you’re still winning because there was a potential profit margin in the enjoyment compared to the price and effort costs, and you took the opportunity to make some utilitarian profit.
That’s what I meant.
It’s almost exactly the opposite of what you wrote.
I’m not sure what we are exactly disagreeing about.
I’m assuming that the cloak is not a Veblen good, hence the utility of wearing it is not correlated with its price.
What do you mean by “best thing in the wardrobe”?
“The best thing in the wardrobe” is that which, when worn today, will have the highest expected utility.
If the price correlates with the amount of effort you put into convincing yourself to enjoy wearing it, and that effort correlates with how much you enjoy wearing the cloak later on, then yes the price is correlated with the utility of wearing the cloak.
If this price-causes-effort-causes-enjoyment chain brings the total net utility of the cloak from “not the best thing” to “the best thing”, then you’re still winning because there was a potential profit margin in the enjoyment compared to the price and effort costs, and you took the opportunity to make some utilitarian profit.