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I absolutely love it when tourists buy expensive gear. It's fucking great.
One of my friends owns a fishing shop, for example. During the pandemic lockdown, all sorts of families got their mailbox money, rolled up to the shop, bought an expensive kayak and a bunch of fishing gear, then went outside for the first time in their lives—and a significant percentage of them promptly dropped their gear into a lake/river.
It's from him that I also learned there's such a thing as "paddling classes," because he teaches one. I grew up paddling canoes around lakes from a single-digit age, and I didn't realize that people couldn't figure out how to paddle a boat just by giving it a try.
If people with more money than sense want to buy $10,000 worth of backpacking gear to be used four or five times total, well, someone with less money will eventually get it for a steal during a yard sale, estate sale, on Craigslist, etc.
Also, yuppiebux help fuel this industry for everyone else. For some serious /out/doorsmen, expensive-add gear is a good investment, because they'll get plenty of use out of it and bang for their buck. A $5,000 setup is a great investment if you use it for a decade or so and for hundreds or thousands of miles of backpacking, for example.
