First, room acoustic is fundamental...
I think they vastly overrate the impact of the room vs. the benefit of advancing the system itself.
Second, upgrading (advancing the system) is a money pit and the root of this "elitism" that you speak about.
Third, room acoustic made my listening experiments possible and at practically no cost a hi-Fi experience by itself...Using passive materials and also with active homemade device... I know i made it and the reward is amazing....
A remark:
Buying very good components in the scale corresponding to our purse is the first task.... But upgrading after that is a very problematic solution to the problem of the system improvement....No one can exceed his purse possibility, and most upgrades in the same rung of the scale is no more an upgrade but a "sidegrade", a useless expansive variation ....And the source of frustrations....
Then the solution to reach Hi-Fi experience cannot comes from the buying spree in "elite" new brand technology.... The solution can come and must come from the way we will embed rightfully what we already owns, that is anyway already relatively good gear if well choosen... a good amplifier or a good speakers of 20 years or 30 years ago or more are not obsolete nor so bad that they cannot gives no more an HiFi experience...
i call that solution the 3 embeddings of any audio system: resonance- vibrations controls in the mechanical dimension, controlling and decreasing the noise floor of the electrical grid of the audio system, of the room and of the house, and last but not least, controlling the acoustical space in a passive way with varieties of low costs materials and in an active way with simple homemade devices... All that is possible, simple, and dont cost high money.... I know that i made it.... Anyone go with his purse...
The true "elitism" and snobbery and ignorance is affirming that what i speak about, is impossible, illusory, and false...Saying only high cost gear is the key is half truths, and half truths are worse than lies....
Anyone KNOW only what he can create for himself.... I learn it the hard way for the last 7 years....
Audiophile experience is possible for all creative people at low costs....
Equating all i just say with the affirmation that all piece of audio system are on the same level is not what i speak about at all....A Million dollars system will be better than my system but will need also to be rightfully embed to reach his potential higher S. Q....
Hi-Fi experience, naturalness of musical timbre, holographic imaging, dynamic, etc are all possible with a low cost good system, modulo the rightfull embeddings....