Do the heroic class systems provide a benefit to their vendors in terms of follow on sales?

This discussion erupted on the beowulf list today. I responded to a question on this, pointing out that prestige adds nothing to the bottom line. What matters is, not so curiously, the bottom line. One author disagreed with me. His point was that prestige class systems translated into sales for the relevant vendors. I think his examples were stretches, and not applicable to HPC. All of the public (and private) responses I have seen seem to support my thesis on this. The argument came about over discounts, and NDAs for deals. Basically because of heavy discounting, the vendors wanted that information appropriately privileged, so that they could control who gets it. If one customer learns that another got a great deal, they are going to demand a similar or better deal. So if you go negative on margin to win a prestigious deal, my thesis was that this will not translate into additional sales, only lower margins. Let me know what you think here. Go anonymous, and you can send email to joe _at_scalability dot org if you wish, and I’ll post the comment anonymously. I’ve seen vendors buy deals. This doesn’t last long. It drives vendors who do this more than once, out of business. Customers shouldn’t want to do this, as it destroys continuity, support, and decreases competition in the market. The next time you see a purchasing manager salivating over the prospect of getting an even better “deal”, just remember, there is a cost to every decision … and that cost could be the thing that drives that vendor under. Bad deals kill good companies. Ask LNXI. And many others. So please do comment here. I am interested in your take on it.