My immediate reaction in Discord when four-digit L7 appeared was "I both love and hate this."
I've had roughly 24 hours to process what I saw here. I still absolutely 'love' it. I turn 29 in January, and this is the only time in all my years on this earth L7 has been played for a four-digit prize in a first-run episode. Very few 'not car' prizes would have worked here to be on the higher-end of a four-digit prize and for the tugboat to be able to bring it out, yet they picked the perfect prize for the occasion paired with an absolutely perfect reveal. This much was freakin' awesome!
Something still bothered me, though -- enough that I've tried to think through ways for such a four-digit playing to make more sense in the context of what the game is. Adjusted for inflation going all the way back to L7's inception, this has to be, by far, the least expensive prize ever offered in the game. I think for one playing, I'm OK with this exception, but the purest in me takes issue with this game being won for a prize that is worth significantly less than even the cheapest 'normal' prize. My solution to this (if four-digit L7 is to ever be played again) would be to introduce a fairly simple, yet healthy bonus element tied to the number of dollar bills a contestant has left at the end of the game. One dollar still buys the prize. Any remaining dollars are multiplied by $10K. Obviously in this one instance, no bonus cash would have been awarded, but for a savvy contestant with, say, $2 remaining after paying $1 for the prize, they would walk away with the prize + $20,000. This gives the game a potential total prize payout in line with a typical automobile playing -- and for a very 'lucky' contestant who can correctly give all four numbers, they would walk away with as much as $60,000 + the prize (albeit extremely unlikely to happen).
I think of it like the times we've seen Plinko played for a car. The car offered is worth substantially less than the total payout of a normal $50,000 Plinko playing. How is this issue resolved? The first chip that lands in the 'car' slot wins the car, and the slot subsequently returns to $10,000 -- so in theory, a contestant can win the car + $40K, which would be a total payout worth more than a typical playing.
Again, this is the pricing game purest in me speaking. We'll probably never see four-digit L7 again, so for the one playing, there was no need to tie-in a bonus element. But if this were to become a more regular thing, I think a bonus would help shore up the issue of playing for a prize worth significantly less than what is considered normal for this game.