My guess, always feeling like a novice, is that people might not know who to believe among the (self) anointed experts. Seeing that experienced and knowledgeable people disagree, some might suspect there is no “right” answer and that people convince themselves that they don’t need to “go to extremes” to enjoy audio, and that people that do are plagued by some validation bias (they want to believe it, so they do).
And then there is the law of diminishing returns, which is real. The difference between a clock radio and a simple stereo set-up is large, while the cost is small. And going up from there the improvements per money spent diminish. I understand people that can’t afford much thinking that they are getting a lot and still saving money compared to the mega-deluxe systems. They think, “I have almost as much as they do — maybe 95% — and I spent a few thousands, while they spend 10’s of thousands for that top few percent improvement.” But to some the most elusive improvements are everything and worth the money, which they obviously have to spend.
To each their own.
