alt Hacker News> Payment in units other than dollars is still payment. If I get paid in bitcoins, the bitcoin market could completely collapse before I cash out. It's not different than that.
I can't pay my rent or my server bills in "prestige". Entirely different.
I can't pay my rent or server bills in "bitcoins". I need to leverage my bitcoins in some way to get "dollars" that I can then pay my bills with. Non-monetary payment is still payment. Rare pokémon cards are payment too.
Also, in fact, people get things that otherwise cost money all the time based on prestige.