to be fair, most of those "backups" are played once, if they suck they get thrown off instantly and if they are good they stay until the price point in the store doesn't pain me anymore. so it's really just a temporally displaced backup, you are right :-)

ETA: "Doesn't pain me" depends on the content: i did not shy back from buying for example Baldurs Gate 3 at full price. Indie devs normally get full price and automatically bought DLCs too, but i'm not into throwing my cash after the Bethesdas and EAs of the gaming world.