Ahh good hair!
This is something I can talk about for days! My first real girlfriend in school was black, so I was a very lucky little white boy to be educated early on in life on the many and varied facets of hair.
Hair modification, is not much different than any other body modification; be it getting your nails painted, ears pierced or a tattoo. We want to mold ourselves into the image we think presents our inner being.
While I can understand Whispers dislike of Wigs or even the odd feel of "fake hair" many women feel better about themselves with it than without it. Also in is some cases a wig may be cover for a hair experiment gone horridly awry
To speak specifically to The Player's comment a "cheap weave" rarely is cheap. Also what can be done, and what can look and feel more natural has a lot to do with what a lady has to work with. Of all the women you mentioned Candi is the only one I have met and she doesn't have a weave, it is a fusion technique where hair is "glued" to the extension in very small sections. This allows the hair to look much more natural, however not all hair types do well with this. There are other simular techniques including dome extensions which uses a small box braid of monofibre synthetic hair. very durable, and allows for unnatural colours and a various levels of curl and texture.
A traditional weave is a whole section or tract of hair that is applied in horizontal rows and is much faster (a couple of hours Vs 6-10 hours for fusion and simular type procedures) as is much less costly to have "installed"