How does saying something's too expensive amount to 'whining'? I've worked with children and teenagers, so presumably I should know what whining is, and this isn't it. Saying something's too expensive simply means the price this person's willing to pay for the item is lower than the stated price, so no transaction will occur at the current price.
There's a huge difference between something's too expensive for you personally and saying it's too expensive for what it is, period.
And how does that amount to 'whining'?
BTW, those two different things you mentioned? They are the same concept, actually. There's no such thing as objective valuation* of a commodity. A commodity's value* is always a relative and subjective concept. In the simplest scenario, a product is worth* exactly as much as whatever the buyer's willing to give up in exchange for it.
No matter how a person says "it's too expensive", there's only one way to interpret it: it's too expensive for them.
* Please forgive my improper use of economic terminologies, it's been a while since my last course.