Growlers in Bavaria

Growlers are usually consumed by legitimate beer lovers out this way. Since they're a pain to trade and they don't last long - they're typically purchased by people that actually plan to drink the beer. Plus, if something is legitimately rare, they probably won't do growler fills of it. There are exceptions, like Hill Farmstead, but that's just them refusing to package certain beers.

Bottles (and the new "crowler" quick canning systems) tend to be the domain of the dubious craft beer "nerd." They can be treated like currency. There are plenty of breweries that are borderline empty most of the time, but will have a massive line outside when they do a packaged release. People don't always want to drink their beer, they simply want to acquire it.