You and
@Zloth need to start an "hours per penny" club
With Red Tape being $2.39 and That's Not my Neighbor at $1.79, it's hard to imagine any cheaper form of entertainment that doesn't involve consuming ads. But if they don't seem like a good value to you at those prices, I just have to assume you're only mildly interested in them, so it makes sense not to waste money.
Thanks for the list. Passpartout has been something I've wanted to try for awhile. I'm only a tiny fraction of the artist you are, but I enjoy painting anyway.
I was going to link you to a similar game that isn't heavily narrative-based because they used to have a demo, and I figured "free" might be good, but I went to their Steam page, and they took the demo down, probably because it no longer was a good representation of the game
Here's a link to the game anyway:
Buy and sell art, manage employees, and grow your shop in this immersive simulator set in Europe. Curate a unique collection, attract customers, and become the premier art dealer. Transform your humble gallery into a thriving art empire!
store.steampowered.com
Edit: I just realized their snippet in that link makes it sound like you just buy art from someone else and sell it, but you actually paint your own art to sell. I suppose you can eventually buy from someone else, but the demo didn't go that far.