Not a lot of people enjoying your post I am afraid. Add me to the list.
"PC gaming can't mean that much at all to them.." Yup, you are right. I (like most PC gamers left) am in my 30s now and yeah, it means very little to me. I have 2 kids. PC gaming is absolutely take it or leave it. And at these GPU prices it's leave it. the value just isnt there for a " a bit of fun" on an occassional evening between work and family time. Does that mean I will go to console? No probably not. But shock horror!! there is a life outside of gaming. I enjoy kayaking, wakeboarding, MTB, running, sailing. Plenty plenty ways to spend (or invest) £1500 other than a graphics card that makes a game I can already play look slightly slightly better, or run slightly smoother. What a total waste.
I have a ton of indoor and outdoor hobbies but PC gaming is still important to me (though less so than when I was younger of course). I really don't see why this thread has turned into such a: "get on your soap box and tell us how PC gaming is no longer important to you"... no-one cares in the context of this thread. Yes the new Nvidia cards will be expensive, yes Nvidia
are a greedy and arrogant corporation, but PC gaming has always been an expensive hobby comparable to consoles and we will always pay a premium to power the games at the levels we want. There is very little 'practical' about PC gaming and the rigs required to enjoy it, we do it because it is a hobby and a passion. If the pricing of the new Ampere cards, when published, is not acceptable then make it known by writing to Nvidia on their social media or customer services. Don't buy anything you feel is overpriced, stick to a budget you are comfortable with and if AMD offer better value for the performance then buy that instead.
It's little different in principle to amateur photographers spending thousands for one lens to add to their collection that they will use to take photos far, far less than a GPU will be used for gaming. Value is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to enthusiast hobbies and if someone gets a lot of happiness from buying a GPU then it is money well spent. To put things into perspective, many people go out and get blotto and literally spend hundreds or thousands per year on alcohol without blinking an eye... that to me as someone who spent years doing it is, upon reflection, the pinnacle of wasting your money. In comparison, spending money on your PC is a worthwhile investment.