There's a difference between free information and compiled free information with a bit of extra. You pay for the premium of having it all put together and not having to spend the time to go find it all. Why buy a programming book? There's lots of tutorials on the internet. Still, many people buy books.

If I were completely new to a topic, like copywriting, I would probably look for a book on the topic, rather than blogs. That's because I'd spend more time trying to find free material that's good (there's a lot of free crap out there), than to buy a pre-compiled book from a reputable source.

I agree with you that the materials have to justify their price. I've purchased a $99 information product before that was total crap, and the exact same content on the same person's website, just reformatted. In that case there's no justification, no added value. I don't know what books you're talking about to determine if they're actually any good or not, but to charge for what's normally "free" information there has to be added value.

Maybe there is a rash of startups with inflated pricing without any added value. However, as soon as the first competitor comes in that truly adds value for the same price (or less), then everyone will jump to it.