Even without it being a decade, people happily spend $20 to get 2 drinks at a bar, go see one movie, get one game (or one third of a AAA game), eat one meal at a restaurant, pay for parking once, or on a trinket or toy that looks neat on their desk.

Acting like $20 is steep for software is, imo, part of the reason we end up in this ad-supported model in the first place. A lot of people don't attribute the actual challenge of writing software and the value they get out of it because it's so abstract to them.