You have to face the fact that 99% of the people who devote an enormous amount of time posting on forums are gear fetishists, and almost exclusively male.
They project their egos and aspirations to the gear they buy and use, they debate endlessly minor points of technical matters, and just like Japanese girls who hang cute animals and charms on their cell phones, they personalize their cameras like totems with accessories, paint jobs, straps, etc etc.
Of course, they must pretend that they are interested in shooting pictures, but this is clearly not the reality, even though they may not realize it themselves. Decorated, "legendary" gear is an end to itself. Hoarding mental facts about gear is the same, like the guys who know every baseball statistic and can recite what happened in every game in the last 100 years. Men like to do it. It's wired into your brains.
Why not embrace the fact that you just like owning esoteric cameras because it reinforces who you want to be? Once in a while you'll get lucky and perhaps take an interesting photo, but drop the pretense and admit you're all little boys with toys. You don't have to be photographers. The ownership of certain cameras lets you maintain the mental construct of who you want to be, not who you really are. The maintenance of a sense of self is hard to do. You need props. You needs objects which reinforce what you think you are and want to be. You'd never leave your house in a polyester leisure suit. You'd never be seen in public with a crummy camera, because you want to feel above the herd. You don't want to be one of them, one of those dopes with a Canon XT DSLR and plastic lens, you want to be special. You want something that makes you superior.
In reality, any name brand modern camera will take perfectly adequate, sharp, well-exposed photos.
OK, some will be more expensive, a bit sharper, what have you, but it doesn't matter. You either have the creative eye or you don't.
If the 50 or 60 year old man wants a Porsche, let him have it to drive to the supermarket. If he wants a Leica and it makes him feel superior, let him have it. If he wants to talk about bokeh or straps all day long, why not.
The man who cannot examine himself and perceive the truth is to be pitied. Deep down, you all know what you are and you aren't, but admitting what you are to yourself is what can put you on anti-depressants.
