That is one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is to say, hey, I know you are a teenager. My taste is not what teenagers like these days. Here is a good certificate, because I really love you and I want you to get what YOU like. Not what I like or what the world likes.
Reminds me of the multiple sets of Seforim and gifts I got for my Bar Mitzvah. When I got home I realized the uncles who really loved me did not write on the first page so that I can't exchange them. They wrote on the card.