Exactly this.The truth of the matter is, in the modern market you pay more money on "potential" then you do on established players. Clubs pay for what a player could be rather then what he is at the moment. Thats why someone like Joao Felix got sold for 120M when he was at Benfica. Thats why Real Madrid are paying 50M for a 16 year old Endrick who has barely even produced for the first team of Palmeiras yet. The same way they did for Vinicious Jr and Rodrygo.
Granted they have been very successful with it thus far but naturally their will be misses as well. Regardless that is how todays market works.Hype and Potential generates more income and garnish a bigger paycheck to acquire.