A gift card's value on the open market is not necessarily the same as its value as a gift.

We respond differently to cash than to gift cards. If I receive cash, I tend to treat it the same as all other money I receive. Mentally, it goes into my "income" pile and I'm just as conservative with it as I am with all of my other income.

On the other hand, if someone gave me, say, a Best Buy gift card, I have to spend it at Best Buy. The giver is saying "I want you to have a fun electronic something, but I want you to pick which one." I'm going to use it to splurge on something I want as opposed to something I need. (With that in mind, I find grocery store gift cards odd.)

It also wasn't obvious to me until the end that this was put together by people who have a product that compete with gift cards.