I love going to the High-End. Is there a lot of ridiculous nonsense? Sure, but I don’t have to engage with it. I’ll walk past and roll my eyes. I’m not a speakers guy so I get spared the worst of it (will still look at some setups of course, sometimes marveling, sometimes silently laughing at expensive gadgets that then don’t even sound that good). For headphones/IEMs, it is a great opportunity to try out old and new models, with the only downside being that the environmental noise can be too loud for open-backs when not in a closed booth.
I also can’t help but notice that the headphones section keeps growing year to year and is absolutely packed with visitors. Maybe that is the future of "affordable" HiFi, in some ways.