It's interesting to think about what would happen if you could use money for these things.

The logic, initially, is that people making these big financial decisions would be paid right up to the marginal benefit of the second highest bidder, instead of just being treated to some relatively cheap experiences.

However, it's ridiculous to pay someone to give you money. That's just an unnecessary extra step. So, what would more likely happen is prices would fall to the point where only the highest bidder could turn a profit.

Are non-monetary markets like this actually inflationary (in the price sense), then?

Another thought is that you're demonstrating value as a long term partner by having these interactions. It's similar to academic interviews that spend all day mostly in fairly casual conversation, because the department wants to find out if they'll like interacting with you regularly for the foreseeable future.