Booster prices make no sense, so who spends gold to buy them?

Thanks for pointing that out, I made some edits to my post to rectify. So one lollipop would cost a tiny fraction less than 10 gold bars. Even before the price increase I had already stopped spending gold to buy lollipops. I find it quite sad that they aren't value for money since using boosters wisely is part of the fun in the game. So it saddens me to see that the most efficient way to play successfully is not the most enjoyable way. I really do think King have got that balance wrong. Using boosters should be cheaper than using extra moves, as it's much more satisfying and gives us a sense of achievement. Who gets any achievement out of passing a legendary level with 255 extra moves?

Thanks for you input @Rhonda_L . Congratulations on your Candy Royale success!

Indeed, this is one of those moments for which the lollipops are useful: Lollipops are sometimes needed by players wishing to complete Candy Royale as you cannot replay levels until the game gives us 35 or more extra moves for our ten gold bars. At the higher levels certainly quite often 5 extra moves still leaves us a jelly or two short, so I can understand players purchasing lollipops to keep a win streak going.

A lot of levels in the highest ranges often require a selection of boosters to pass and even when I have timed party popper plus UFO from my daily win I still find I may need a lollipop or two at the end to pass those levels, so near the top of the game lollipop hammers and switches (to get those two colour bombs to line up) are quite definitely useful. I do understand why you would purchase them playing at the top. I don't have enough gold in my end of game account to purchase them and that is one of the reasons I am cross with King for the price hike.

However I think the economics for new players are different from those at the top. In my latest test games and also in my main game at level 4500 I have recently found that the game will almost certainly drop players the right candies needed once we decide to pay 10 gold bars. I used to be much more hesitant to spend the gold for extra moves on my first attempt about a year ago, because I did find back then even if I was quite close, unless I could see on the board I would definitely pass with the next move or two I would end up having to make a choice whether to buy another 5 moves at the inflated price of 16 gold or quit and so have wasted the initial 10 gold. This rarely seems to happen now so I think King have changed the algorithms to reward players who choose to spend gold to keep their win streaks with some luck. I have noticed this in my main game because the game offers me adverts to watch for extra moves. I go on to watch two ads for 3 + 2 extra moves and when I then play on the board miraculously clears in just one move. I don't know for sure if this new, but the game has become much more predictable in the last few months, especially in those earlier levels up to about level 2000. So it has become obvious what is the best strategy to successfully play Candy Crush. I am currently testing out how far I can get and how much gold I can accumulate using the strategy of not spending any gold to buy boosters and it seems to work very well.

I love your "the more colour bombs the better" strategy. I've never bothered with the pre level ads as I seem to do nicely without them but I can see how this will really help a player at those horrible levels past 15,000! My top game doesn't have ads, but yes, thanks for sharing that great advice.