Personally I find that I have to go to myself in these matters. So, a thing has value in itself if I find it valuable just as it is. Not in the sense "I want to own it", neither the sense of "I want to extract something other out of it", nor what you are alluding to, that it's useful for making something else.

So if I say "this is valuable", then nobody can remove that value by saying "no it's not", that just means, "I don't see value in it".

But none of this has anything to do with what eigenvalue said. With the subjective, immediate way of reasoning I am proposing, the way of spotting commercial value is saying "I want to pay money for this", which I also understand as your standpoint. But that's not what eigenvalue was saying, or rather that's not how I read it. To me it felt more like "I think this could be smartly packaged in a way that would make some other people pay money to somebody else", which I don't particularly like. Hence my reaction.

But again, mostly the wordplay which I found irresistible. :)

Oh okay - so you're talking about product which is intrinsically valuable to its creator, irrespective of it's potential intrinsic value to others. Seems reasonable... don't know if I agree with your larger thesis... but it is an interesting discussion. :)

Not only to it's creator but to anybody. I agree, I too find the entire discussion, if a little off-topic, very interesting.