In my admittedly limited experience, phrases such as "compared to what is out there" desperately needs to be understood as being relative.
I am definitely not challenging what you said because you are 100% right: Compared to what is out there, the GPU is not the bleeding edge of current technology.
However, doing a bit more than a recreational amount and a lot less than professional amount of photoshop and video editing, I've seen middle pack hardware specs be not only adequate but measurably and observably close to the bleeding edge.
As you step to the upper echelons of pro-sumer hardware specs the differences start becoming minuscule relative to their differences from end of the pack specs. Therefor, things such as "performance" need to be strongly challenged against real word benefits if you are interested in the monetary value of it.
Long winded way of saying: when you climb over the $1200-1500 range... Unless you are a professional power user, performance differences should be negligible.
If a slightly faster processor saves me say 30 seconds over the course of one photoshop session and I do this say, 15 times a month this equals: 7.5 minutes a month or 90 minutes a year. If this faster processor cost me an extra $300 I paid: $3.33 a minute.... or, $200 an hour.... A lot of money.
BUT, if I saved 30 seconds a project and did 100s of projects a month, then it becomes extremely cheap and perhaps could get in the black by EARNING you money (or delivering enjoyment) by getting you finished with projects and on to others.
Just another way of looking at all this tech stuff. If the GPU does not serve you or make you happy then by all means buy whatever it takes to make you happy. This is what its all about anyway. Just wanted to point the relative cost of things. Bulk buying has the same principle. No matter what I tell my wife, we do not need a 12 pack of baby grand pianos just because they are cheaper per unit...
In closing. I would pay upwards of $500+ for an iphone because of what it does for me and all the gadgets I've been able to get rid of and avoid buying because of it. Relative, to me, it's an insanely cheap piece of equipment at $199. On the other side, spending $60 on my TV bill aggravates me because of the minimal time I watch it and the even more minimal amount of enjoyment I get out of it. But until cup cake wars gets on netflix streaming, my wife says we're keeping it. $60 for 1 TV show... geesh.
