Hmmm, very interesting indeed...
I've found myself doing bonsai that, under the 'dictionary' definition, are probably more precious than valuable. Most of my bonsai would most likely not be valuable to the rest of the bonsai community, but they are of high importance to me because I have raised them (as short amount of time as that may be for a newbie guy like me).
Recently, I've been wanting to purchase something more valuable. That is, something that the bonsai community would absolutely love and I could show it off to everyone, but the drawback is I would not have any past experience with this tree (training, growing, etc.), and thus it would not be precious to me. I would much rather a tree be important to me than to someone else (although if it were both, that would be wonderful); and thus I've put off the above purchase for a while.
I'd like to think that I will not give up my precious bonsai for valuable bonsai; however, gaining more valuable bonsai and giving up some precious bonsai may just be part of the artist's journey.