I have a Coming Soon list of ebooks from my favourite authors, I will pay up to £6 a book to get the ones I want, only yesterday I pre ordered one through Amazon that's Book 9 in a series, for £5.38, but generally I don't hunt for books, I have enough good authors I follow writing that it would take something's special to attract my eye and move me to a new author. Books are still, and always will take most of my disposable income, I'm just more choosy nowadays where I spend it.
Plus I'm on instafreebee so I get free books thrown at me constantly. I do 'buy' free books but generally they sit in Calibre waiting for the day I can't afford one books and have nothing to read.
I do agree that free books and constant sales, while being financially good for me, do devalue the whole industry. I don't think in the long term that's a good move. What I prefer are reasonable length excerpts so I can read a decent amount before I decide to buy.