>>3819232Any reasonable zoom user isn't arguing zooms have better image quality, but as you've surely learned, a good photo isn't purely determined by image quality. Plenty of premium zooms on the market still offer excellent image quality – not quite top-level prime image quality, but close enough that you won't notice without pixel peeping. Meanwhile, the huge, undeniable advantage zooms offer over primes is convenience.
"The one you have with you" has been repeated ad nauseam, but it's true - if you're missing the right focal length prime for the occasion, you're out of luck. You can pocket an extra prime or two, or carry a bag full of lenses, but you still need to stop and switch lenses, potentially missing a shot in that time, getting dust in your body, or exposing it to the elements if you're out in the rain. Not to mention the mild but notable inconvenience of carrying a lot more than if you just had a single zoom to cover the range.
If you're building a large kit from scratch, I agree anyone should prioritize buying quality primes over quality zooms. But in the case of OP's hypothetical question, if you were only allowed one or the other, it's a complicated decision based on how you use prefer to use your camera. As someone who's done some event work here and there, I'd imagine anyone doing events would go crazy being restricted to only using primes.
