For status-driven people, it is the source, not the amount that matters. It is a consumable, and you cannot accumulate it, since it depreciates in psychological value rapidly. Like rotting. So you can hit diminishing retune if you get too much in a short period, but longer term, you need it in proportion to your recognition-hunger and lifespan, at a steady rate. This idea is fundamental to Freudian psychology and many classical philosophies of self, like Hegels.

Modernity has turned ours into an impersonal and nominally egalitarian culture, where recognition is often valued only in proportion to the money it makes you. For people who have sublimated status/recognition hunger into money-greed, praise is valued in proportion to it's liquid value as money.

Most people are somewhere in-between, depending on personality. Individualism and self-esteem (sometimes sliding into narcissism) swing the balance towards money, since if you esteem yourself way above others, praise is by definition worth very little. It is all judged to come from inferiors.