Are high end compacts like the Canon S95 worth the money?

The cameras you mentioned are Premium Cameras.
The best that those companies can build and still be a compact camera.

And those particular cameras are also designed to give better performance in low light.
Not greatly better, but as good as it can get with todays technology.

Low light performance has been the Achilles Heel of the compact camera since day one.

The latest increase to 12 and 14 megapixels has made things worse.
That just crowds more pixels onto the 10 megapixel sensor assembly.
That means smaller pixels and more pixels in the same space as a 10 megapixel camera.
That means less light output and more noise.
That means the need for more aggressive noise removal firmware.
That means less detail.

Making cameras smaller and smaller is not helpful either.
No room for viewfinders and now people are complaining about battery capacity.
The new Sony "T" series of cameras claim 200 shots per charge, but all test reviews are showing less than that.
A tiny camera has a tiny battery.

If you are an advanced amateur, you are ready for the next step up, which is a DSLR camera.

..

The most expensive part of any digital camera is the sensor. Compact cameras have the smallest sensor, and thus are the cheapest. ILC's and DSLR's have much big sensors and cost more, and medium format cameras have even bigger sensors and cost as much or more than some cars. Premium compacts use a bigger sensor than a regular compact, but not as big as a DSLR, and thus a price somewhat in the middle.

I'd guess that 1/1.7" sensors are very low production compared to 1/2.3" and APS-C sensors, and that factors into the unit cost.

Whether it is worth the price depends on how well it suits your need.

If you are looking to have significantly better image quality than the usual compacts, then you should move up to D-SLR as snapshot2 said.

If you are looking for something that can fit in your pocket (or purse), something to take to a night club in Vegas or a Gala event, then this is as good as it gets without cramping your style. And this is what premium compacts are good for, to take with you to places where you will not or cannot take a D-SLR or ILC. Don't expect the low light photos to be anything close to a D-SLR. But if you take photos in RAW and know how to optimize the manual settings. Then you may be able to get a pretty decent photo after some Photoshop work.