That's true of any hobby that overlaps with routine activities. I bike. Mostly mountain bike, lately mostly lift-assist downhill. The idea of spending more than $700 dollars on any bike is crazy to most people. The idea that I spent $3500 on a bike that is miserable to pedal on flat ground and next to impossible to pedal uphill baffles them. Even in MTB most people don't do much downhill specific, but in many ways, until very recently at least, they were halo bikes for most companies. 10k is not unusual for these bikes. Mine was relatively middle of the road at $7k new (I got it used). Try to explain to someone who occasionally rides a cruiser around, why spending that kind of money for a DH bike is reasonable. Its easy to show them the difference from a cruiser, and then mention you are doing 20-30 foot gap jumps, riding 45+ degree slopes over rocks, and hitting top speeds of 30-35mph on rut, rock, and root strewn trails and they can understand the need for the beefed up fork, burly brakes, and sturdy construction. But if you try and explain why pivot placement for the rear swing arms, or the effects of reach and trail, and the effects of those elements in a dynamic environment and why that makes you willing to pay a multiple thousand dollar premium over a basic DH bike, they quickly lose interest.
I think a similar thing happens with music. You put a good pair of headphones on someone and if they have enough features, you can get them to go see what sounding good means, especially if you keep the price point around $500 for over-ears and $200 for IEMs. Same is true of speakers. A good pair of active bookshelves that cost under $1000. I don't think you would have a hard time convincing people of that. But to get them to hear the differences between those and really high end headphones or speakers? for that you are going to have to sit them down and train them on what to listen for, at which point you loose 99%.
I don't think that is too different than the vinyl vs digital (though really that division is absurd to me, how many people are really only vinyl (I mean, even in your car?). Yes the measurements are better for digital. Often by orders of magnitude. But how much of that can we really hear? My vinyl rig might be limited to a SINAD of about 60dB, making it how much worse than a DAC? But how much of that is audible in an average listening room on typical speakers/headphones? The difference is certainly not as extreme as a 60dB value would suggest.
I think I forgot what my point was. But maybe it was that the vitriol (this is a general comment, not directed at you) I see surrounding this stuff makes little sense to me. Its like when I'm on the mountain and some guy (its almost always a guy even though 30-40% of DHers are female). Tells me some suggestion on how I can go faster, as if that was the only reason for doing it. I'm never going to be faster (though I am up there overall) than a good 20-30 year old. I'm fifty. My max HR is a good 40 BPM lower than theirs leaving a lot of pure physical ability on the table. I also recover much more slowly from injury. Faster isn't really why I am out there. Right now I'm just working on throwing shapes while I'm in the air and riding smooth. That's what is fun for me and makes me feel like a kid playing in the woods. But sure if faster is the only measurement, I'm doing it wrong.