> To my mind the purpose is the product and always will be.

A lot of industries would disagree with you. There are plenty of products where the physical form and direct purpose of the product itself is quite disjoint from the product they are actually selling.

For example, Hermès doesn't sell bags to carry stuff in - they sell status symbols. Restaurants don't sell food for sustenance - they sell a dining experience. Car companies only tangentially sell modes of transportation - they are treated more like fashion items in practice. Items like wedding rings have zero purpose - what they are selling is a physical manifestation of an emotion.

If everything we ever interacted with was 100% utilitarian, we'd be living in a very dull world.