Dirk, page-34

"And if the company offers up $800000 in free services/chemicals to lock down future recurrent revenue what then?"

While that will not show up on the income and cashflow statements, it should show up on the balance sheet as an increase in assets as goodwill or Intellectual property although if you have a good tax man it may not even show up there.
Therefore the goodwill investment has intrinsically increased the value of the business , and has deferred tax at the same time, if there is a capital gains tax when the business is sold . I have done the same with dairy cows bought them breeded them up sold offspring 7 years later for 500% of the book value in the interim the business was break even, same scenario with a cafe we owned and doing the same with a heavy machinery services investment currently .
Of course the reverse is true ie not writing down assets that are passed their use by date as what happened with many REITs just before the GFC.
It is hard for some investors to understand that just looking at the financials is not a true indication of the company's change in value over a number of years.