A couple of points worth making. Duckie, you and I seem to agree on many things, but I'm afraid guilt for picking up a free or heavily discounted book is not one of them. Free and heavily discounted ebooks are part of a marketing strategy and an effective one. To quote from your post #126:
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Am I making sure all I buy is full price? That is something else entirely. A discount is cutting into the profits per sale. It is not eliminating the profit completely. Selling things on discount can be used to maximise profit over all (by selling more units). If you discount to zero, then you are not cutting into your profit, but eliminating it completely. Do you see the difference?
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But of course you are foregoing profit only on that particular book, in the hope of increasing overall profit over a number of books. It is just another form of promotion, and a far less costly and more attractive one in the case of an ebook. And except for perma-free, only for a limited time. Even a reader who downloads a free ebook without any intention of purchasing further works from that particular author can become a new paying reader. Offering free or heavily discounted books is a valuable tool for discovery. Authors often take a similar approach with some books available in KU and others not. I am currently reading an excellent series where the first book was free in KU, but later books are sold for between $3.99 and $5.99. If Pepsi was to give away a free can of its product to Coke drinkers or vice versa, why on earth would anyone feel guilty for taking it. They are sacrificing in that case not only their profit but also bearing the cost of it, in the hope of taking customers from their rival. The customer is agreeing to try the rival product, which they would not otherwise have done.