I think I’m assuming the majority of people use worth the way I am rather than you, but I have no evidence to back that up. Anecdotally, people around me seem to refer to inherent worth rather than subjective worth, but that doesnt make them right just because its common.

I think the problem I have with the phrase is when its used as an intrinsic value like you said. People justify buying things on sale using that logic, and dont realize they aren’t saving money but spending it. Maybe thats a slightly different issue though.

I wonder what it is about humans that makes us want to put everything into such firm boxes, and ignore the nuance of things. It seems rare that things are truly without nuance so I dont quite understand the dissonance there.