I think effort is irrelevant. Value is what we really look at when deciding what price to pay. It doesn't matter to most people if it took someone a 1000 hours to produce a loaf of bread. They're not going to pay 100x the price of the bread that took 10 hours to produce. Especially, if the products are mostly indistinguishable.
I think the luxury market proves my point. The perceived value of luxury items is much higher as reflected in the price paid. Although, the cost and effort to produce luxury items is roughly the same as a similar non luxury item.
