There is no value in watercooling. You spend a boat load of money on something that chunky air coolers can do for less money. But that's not the point. Watercooling is about aesthetics and the potential of wringing the last drops of performance out of your hardware, as well as the potential of greater thermal dissipation. That's why it's done.
Ultimately if you're thinking "this GPU and block costs more than the higher tier card alone" then watercooling isn't for you.
I can assure you there's value in water cooling. Protecting your interests.
When I bought my Titan XP for £675 (three weeks after launch) it was a £1300 card.
I've had lots of air cooled GPUs die. Mostly because the ICs simply couldn't handle the heat that Nvidia and AMD considered "normal".
I've never had a GPU die yet under water. Ever. Quite probably because 50c max at 2100mhz is a lot happier than constantly being in the 80s.
Some air coolers are good enough on low to mid range cards, but big cards are very expensive. Thus the initial outlay protects your investment.
Heat is the enemy of all electronic components. Which is why many servers are now being water cooled. That should tell you something. They're quite obviously not doing it for looks.
There are many areas of water cooling that are "tarty" and not necessary. Vanity coolants that are all rubbish and so on. But, there's people who like to overdo things in every aspect of life, for the vanity (even if it ruins performance, see also cars with the wheels leaning at 45')
However I still say that the lower the temps the longer the hardware will last which is scientific fact.
I've been through the "Mayhem's pastel that turns poo brown after 2 months and clogs your pump with its chalky residue" and so on. These are all lessons that what matters is the cooling, not the vanity. That is added after.