I think you and I are on the same page here, for the most part anyway. The problem I am trying to illuminate is not that boycotts require not purchasing, but rather that not purchasing is not the effective part of a boycott. The effective part of a boycott is the organizing, the not buying is a result of the boycott not a cause. You cannot create a boycott by not buying. You can only create a boycott by organizing. And as you say, once you are organizing to create a boycott, your personal choices suddenly start to matter - not because of their economic impact but because of their propagandistic impact.

This is critical to understand. The effect of even 10k people not buying is totally unnoticeable. 10k people stop buying specific things every day whether through death, illness, preference, or economic hardship. But the effect of 10k people all connected to the same movement, or all physically located in a single place, or all doing it deliberately at the same time? That's noticeable. Again, not in the bottom line, but in the expression of power and the tabling of a threat of future impact to the bottom line. That's what moves capitalists.