Back in my home town, we used to have free events all the time. Outdoor concerts, theatre, even indoor concerts and festivals.

They were almost always full to the brim.

Anecdotes are fun, but not much more than that.

Context is king. A famous cello player playing on streets is valued less and is valued more when playing in a stadium. This is the typical framing phenomenon which psychology has discovered about humans. Even what colour we perceive changes based on surrounding context so not surprising.

We naturally go for scarce things first. A few examples of this:

- I'm not particularly into castles, but I've visited a fair few while travelling. I lived in Norwich for 10 years, home to one of the finest Norman castles in the country. Did I visit? Did I heck.

- When your favourite film was on TV you'd watch it every time. Then when you got it on DVD you'd never watch it again.

- Give a dog some miscellaneous leftovers and notice how they prioritise ingestion.

Not sure it's really the same entitlement phenomenon the GP was talking about, though.