This is something that took a while to embrace even when the dollars-and-cents ROI isn't quite as clear (when it is, well duh, go with the better actual-value product). Especially when it's related to income.
My GF's photography gear is a good example.
Her refurb $1100 (would have been $1849 new-new) laptop is way way better at Photoshop than her old 2010-era Thinkpad that could still do it but had a shitty display and was kind of a pain to use. This means she's more likely to actually edit her photos during work travel when she has downtime.
Her newly-built $1700 desktop at home is probably 50% faster than her old 2011-era machine, and with much fewer stupid wrinkles (like broken USB ports or failing SATA controllers). She's still "able" to do the same amount of work on it, but it's faster and far more pleasant, which means she *wants* to do more work on it.
Same for her new-last-fall $3500 camera. Her old camera "could" produce nearly the same results, but with this one it costs her much less time after the fact and it's more forgiving of errors in-camera.
We're soon upgrading our internet service to 1000mbps down / 250mbps up (fiber). Necessary? No, but for $20 extra per month she'll be able to upload client photos literally 50 times faster. Same bits get to the same places, but way less time staring at a progress bar.
So that's about seven grand in equipment where the same "cheaper" versions could probably be had for a third of that and technically be capable of the same thing. None of these on their own directly allow her to make more money, but it means she can make the same amount of money in less time. Why work 25 hours a week when you could work 15? Or, some weeks work that 25 but make more money.
