You don't buy a $200 sound card to play games. You buy that when you do heavy sound editing, producing, mixing, stuff like that. If you purchased it to hear clearer MP3s and are upset that the games don't need such a card then thats your fault for not knowing what hardware suits your needs. That's why I don't judge what I buy by price, but rather 'Do I really need it?' I have a $30 Philips Audigy soundcard which I bet produces just as good as sound.
Like I said the only people who need expensive cards like that, are those people who are plugging in midi controllers, mixing tables, using software like Cakewalk (which is a basic sound creation tool), sound forge, stuff like that. That's the only time when you need an expensive sound card. Just like if you're a gamer you need an expensive graphics card.