Getting Ripped Off On Kindle Content

Amazon's Kindle e-Reader is hugely popular and I can understand why. If you are a voracious reader and perhaps travel a lot, then the ease of taking hundreds of books with you within the mere 250 grams of the Kindle is fantastic. I personally don't own a Kindle but have downloaded the free app on both my iPad and iPhone. It syncs through Whispernet which basically works as follows:

I love this system. It really makes it so easy to read at any given moment without having to lug your book(s) around with you. One word of warning, though. If you have a toddler, as I do, who likes to play with your mobile devices, try not to let him start up the Kindle app and start flicking through your book as you will lose your place... synced over ALL your devices **Learned the hard way**

Reading on the iPad and iPhone isn't as great as on the Kindle itself because Kindle uses e-Ink and the iPad/iPhone screens are lit and therefore cause more eye-strain. The advantage is, however, that you can read in bed without a light on.

But now for my angry rant about Kindle content (and other e-Reader content, for that matter, as this problem seems quite universal).
I paid $9.99 for the Kindle version of "Just Kids" and was disappointed to find that it did not include any of the photos that are included in the hard copies of the book. When I checked back at Amazon for the other copies I was frustrated to find that the paperback including photos is sold for $6.98 with free shipping.

Why are publishers as obtuse about the great possibilities of digital media as the record companies are? They are charging more for an electronic version of a book which they do not need to print / distribute / wrap / mail etc. I can only read it on a Kindle device (if I ever switch to another e-Reader I cannot read the books I paid for), I may not lend my books to a friend (DRM restrictions) and in the above mentioned case, I paid more for the electronic version of the book despite the fact that it contained less content (i.e. photos).

I want to purchase legal content, but refuse to be ripped off like this, so if an electronic version of a book is stripped and costs more, I shall buy the paperback version. Actually, by my reasoning, even identical versions of a book should be cheaper in the electronic edition. I'd love to hear from a publisher who can explain to me why it should be more expensive.

And while this is going on, the publishers and record companies keep calling downloaders thieves?!?