Well of course, because they conceived of utility theory as giving value to money. They also invented a utility theory that only really applies to measuring money. It was a kind of doublethink in which, if real human preferences don't fit a model constructed to deal with money, then economists conclude that humans are Irrational (in a capital-letter ideological sense) rather than trying to come up with a model of evaluative reasoning that actually explains the data gained from real people.