This kind of thing happens way too much. For example, I've seen it with currencies as well. It's amazing how many people appear to implicitly assume that when you can buy, say, X >> 1 yen for one USD, that somehow means that the yen is an inferior currency. Unless you put things into historical context, those ratios are meaningless.
People understand this at a rational level when you point it out to them, but I do wonder about the extent of the economic effect of their flawed gut-level intuitions.
