"...you can spend most of your time tweaking or driving; you don’t have to have uber gear to get thrills..."
The most thrill I have ever had driving was a few years ago down the curvy goat-level steep narrow island roads in the 1970s Beetle convertible. No railguards, of course. The thrill was in virtually no braking power of that thing.
Yes, low-level gear can get you thrills, but I would have given my life for a brand new Bugatti at that moment. Not much of an exchange, though. I thought my life was about to be over anyway.