i understand where you are coming from and that is a well thought out reply...
my waste of money reply came from my distaste for presentation, staff and environment over food. i dont care how food was served if it doesn't taste great. i go out to eat for food and being a chef for the past 14 years at some very great restaurants has given me eyes to see through the BS. personally i dont care how unique a place is. fancy linens, bowls, artwork, wine rooms, silverware and bars will never entice me more than the quality of food. from the food ive tasted at most restaurants, great food makes a unique restaurant, not accessories.
customers are willing to pay for their ignorance and more importantly, their ego. if they go into a restaurant and tell the server who they are in a forced conversation such as "i knew the chef back in 2008" or "does XXX still work here?", they are looking for service and not food. when my wife and i go out (she is also a very talented chef) we would never dream of telling anyone who we are. i want to get a full effect of what a restaurant has to offer. i dont want free courses, the chef at my table, free wine or anything else.
all this leads me to the bowls and why things like that are a waste of money. if a chef cannot learn the real ways to cook before they start using immersion circulators, iSi canisters or liquid nitrogen, they are in it for glamor and not for the food. i know of quite a few of these "chefs" who cannot season correctly and have no idea how to infuse and build layers of flavor and rely on fancy gimmicks to entice customers who end up being attracted to these restaurants like bugs to floodlights.
service and presentation go a long way but if they are mediocre at best and food is terrific i will return. if food is terrible i will never go back, no matter how great the service or special the presentation. its just like scratches in your knife...performance over aesthetics always.