sounds like a way to scam people anonymously. i wonder how many people who bought those things realized they way overpaid.
Depends on how you evaluate. In my opinion, any Ordinal sold for more than 0 sats is "overpaid" because I find absolutely no tangible essence. Someone who pays a million dollars for a rock jpeg clearly thinks differently.
As you can see, it was not "yes, go on, upload it", but rather "fees are needed to prevent abusing the system".
I can guess that the argument of pro-Ordinals is that no sidechain will ever have the same recognition and support as the main chain, and so storing files there ensures longer "lifespan".