Charles dad criticized the Porsche-VW analogy as old, but that doesn’t make it less valid. Both vehicles have the essentials required to get a passenger from Point A to Point B—4 tires, internal combustion engine, battery, brakes, etc. Just because all 3 transports have the same disc tray doesn’t make them all equivalent. They probably differ significantly in the other areas.
To be clear, my sentiments are with the OP. I’m not cashing a few IRAs to spend $40K to hear the slight improvement that such an expenditure might obtain. However, it isn’t hard to detect the envy in his post. He seems offended that (admittedly ridiculously priced) gear exists, that there are people who can afford it, and I also sense a bit of frustration that as good as his system is and as reasonable as his suspicions are about the price to performance ratio of the stratospherically priced gear, he will probably never really be able to verify his well founded suspicions that the higher priced stuff is not money well spent.
I am glad that my system is so much better than I ever would have imagined it could be. Hell, even my 2 mid Fi systems are worlds better than what I could have imagined owning 40 years ago.
Another old argument that rings true is that the mega bucks spenders allow for the development of technology that ultimately trickles downstream. Let those early adopters pay the R&D costs.
Inequality will always be with us. Even societies that attempted to force equality at the point of a gun had elites. At some point you have to look at the stuff that you have, ask if it makes you happy, and if the answer is yes, stop giving a rats a** about what your neighbor might have