This is a deeply unfair comparison. There are bricks of different (somewhat incompatible) sizes between regions, and sometimes in the same region. While a brick is not "region locked" per se, they are only really a suitable material when replacements of the same size and general color are easily available.

Secondly, if your brick stops working, it is no longer useful as a brick, and has to be used as fill material, or disposed of. Indeed, broken bricks are pretty common, sometimes appearing in large piles.

Thirdly, the games you can play with a brick provide many hours of enjoyment, which is a major selling point of bricks that you've left out of the discussion.