This is my #1 complaint about the game. There is simply zero logic for this. That stupidity is compounded by the fact that when Max gets to watch Alice in her own cam, he has to pay her. Just so silly.
I wouldn't put it that high on the list...So much more to complain about really...
It was a good idea for avoiding the usual grind in games of finding money, but there was much more he could have done with them. Instead of all the bullshit with befriending Eric Max could have just as easily seen EVERYTHING by looking at the camera in the rooms they were playing in.
I can just guess that idea of using cameras by Max himself takes to much work from DS, both as writing a plot for it and also to make enough scenes. Maybe he rejected that idea, maybe he is slowly working on it
I definitely think if he was going to use those cameras he would have already.
I honestly think the Camera's need to be reworked
As most of you have pointed out and I do agree 100% on this
The Cameras we are paying 900 dollars per x6 so your spending 5,400 on shit?
I'd just mood in 10k every day and be just like yeah no cams needed
Well considering all the purchasing required so early in the game, that $5400 you spent pays for itself pretty quickly and allows you to buy whatever you need without a lot of grinding.
Imagine how much grind there would be in this game if you also had to spend half your time trying to find money for cigarettes and the like...
The fact that Max can't ever leave the house makes the money generated from the Cameras important.
It's just that he could have done so much more with them and could have allowed you to see all the Eric content even if you were his mortal enemy simply by looking at the cameras instead of sneaking peeks into windows.