I see your point, but think of it this way. Say you’re buying a new car, you’ll probably only buy one car. But you might browse a handful of websites, maybe read What Car? magazine. That information contributes to the decision, and isn’t ‘thrown away’, even though you end up just buying one car.
I’m frankly not awake enough to put things any more rigorously (I ran out of melatonin two days ago and my new order hasn’t yet arrived, so I’m dopey as hell), but I hope this handwavey pseudo-explanation gets the point across.
I see your point, but think of it this way. Say you’re buying a new car, you’ll probably only buy one car. But you might browse a handful of websites, maybe read What Car? magazine. That information contributes to the decision, and isn’t ‘thrown away’, even though you end up just buying one car.
I’m frankly not awake enough to put things any more rigorously (I ran out of melatonin two days ago and my new order hasn’t yet arrived, so I’m dopey as hell), but I hope this handwavey pseudo-explanation gets the point across.