So perhaps things are different in the UK but on this side of the pond (USA & Canada) the vast majority of people buying GW products are male and over the age of 25 (or older). Many of the people purchasing GW products have good paying jobs and while the prices may be high they generally don’t balk at making the purchase if it is a game/army they want to collect.

The competitive gamer (which I am not) often purchases the latest hotness and when it gets surpassed they will sell it or put it in storage and move on to the next army. I personally think that’s a bit crazy but who am I to judge. I’ll also note that many competitive tournaments will not allow third party proxies.

The casual gamer on the other hand generally collects because they like the lore and/or models. These collectors will make the purchases they want mostly ignoring the price since it is something they want/need to fill out their collection/army. Yes they could buy cheaper models by a 3rd party but they are buying the models that they want and they can also play games with.

As has been said many times people hobby differently and no one should judge anyone else for how they hobby. I purchase GW products but I don’t purchase every big box release (I’d go broke and I live in an apartment so space is an issue) but at my game club there is at least a few people purchasing the big new releases (usually not the same people each time). I would bet that at least 10 people in my club purchased the latest Heresy box. I thought about it but I controlled myself and may get into it at a later date but I have a backlog of killteam that I should try and get through. (I have a backlog of many other things but I thought I’d stick with the GW backlog)