It's really not to different from a lot of religious behavior either. If people can feel deeply attached after reading a book or hearing a story It really shouldn't be surprising that that others can feel the same via stream or other digital mediums. One can also think of these purchased rewards/interactions as the equivalent of relic collection/worship.
It is very interesting, especially the sociological demographic data showing what is happening in response to the decline of church attendance.
In a nut-shell, communities that stop going to ‘church’ don’t produce enough offspring to be long term (centuries) stable, but those that do are long term stable.
