I've pointed out to you before that an insurance company can't even change their rates without filing for permission to do so. But you sounded skeptical at the time, so I doubt you are convinced this time either.

Sure the payout is affected by stuff , to use a technical insurance term. But the payout number is created by two important people: the one who inspects the vehicle for damage, and the adjustor. Those are real people whose output will change depending on if they got enough sleep the night before and on if you give them a hard time and they decide that they hate you.

The fact of the matter is that everything that receives a value is assigned that value by someone (or by many people, if there's a market involved). So that's the answer to your question - people decide.