I think people look at this story wrong. It's not really a story of wealth lost in a landfill, it's more of a story of regretting not (re-)investing in Bitcoin in 2013 (and from what I'm told, later doubling down that error with investments in scammy clones).
Consider. Today 8000 BTC would trade for about 923 million dollars. But where, or more precisely, WHEN did all those gains happen? Not prior to 2013. 2013 opened with bitcoin at about $13 and it traded for about $120 most of the year.
I agree with your point here, the point I think is the fact of not reinvesting back then when the price was still very low. From many posts and comments I have read here, I saw where it was said he spent millions on a court case back then, and looking at the amount he spent, if he had used it to invest in bitcoin, he could have purchased more than the 8000btc he was trying to recover and that could have given him much profit that is bigger than the 8000btc current value.
Sometimes, people just need to calm themselves down and have some logical thinking to see for themselves if the next step or move they are about to make would yield positive results in the long run or would just be a waste of resources. This would give them a clear thought on the next line of action to take. If he had done his calculations and logic for this, I believe he would not have made this mistake. Maybe he could have reinvested and possibly used part of the profit to pursue this course of recovery.