Putting value on things that don’t matter is the very definition of society. Without it, there’s just a group of independent individuals, each enjoying their individual existence, and cooperating with each other only when it suits them. If this doesn’t sound very appealing to you, then you want society.

But the illusion is that it’s not what actually happens in societies also - it is, the only difference is that in societies people act this way not only about things that matter (food, shelter and basic necessities), but predominantly about things that don’t, which leads to cruelty, violence and meaningless competition.