Sorry, but using a towed or driven vehicle is not "camping". It's moving into the woods.
This whole concept of "look at my idiot neighbor with the RV" gets a lot of air time here on MMM. As a serious RVer, and early retiree with a serious pile of coin under the mattress (well actual parked at Vanguard) I'll argue the other side of the story.
#1 The whole idea of RVing is to tour, explore and enjoy yourself. If you need to dismiss it because it doesn't meet the definition of backpacking into the woods, and sleeping in a 15 sq. ft. tent, that fine. One has nothing to do with the other, however.
#2 I could give a rat's butt hair how much anybody "saves" by staying at a Motel Six. I often arrive at a campground and spend the evening enjoying a home cooked meal, a great walk in nature, and a few glasses of wine at the fire, before I head to bed. I'm sure the $49 room on the edge of the interstate, with trucks idling in the lot, sketchy folks in the hall, and the smell of mold in the bathroom is just lovely, but not quite the same.
#3 Yes there are LOTS of morons that end up with mortgages for their new, and horrifically depreciating RVs and tow vehicles. OTOH, next week we pick up a seven year old motorhome that is in extraordinary shape, and was used very lightly. It will cost us less than half of the new owner's original investment, or roughly a third of the window sticker on a similar 2015 model. Obviously it's a cash deal, since only fools borrow money on these things. In our second decade of owning RVs, I can safely say that our annual cost of ownership is typically FAR less that what our neighbors spent with family trips to Disney, stupidly expensive beach house rentals, cruises or other options. RV ownership can be pretty reasonable once you learn to find that sweet spot where a unit has suffered most of it's depreciation, but is still in reasonable condition, and easy to resell. I bought two trailers over the years that cost $11-12K and sold them 3-4 years later for $8K. Given the use they got, I couldn't of rented an basic cabin at a state park and came out ahead. By the time our children headed off for college they had been all over North America. One of my daughter's American History teachers found it to be quite entertaining to try to find places covered in his curriculum that she had not been to. There weren't many. I would rather see this set of experiences in their past, than 18 consecutive summers spent with a week at the beach or at Disney.
#4 We spent last winter on the Gulf Coast. Toes in the sand, drink in hand, waiting for the dirt cheap, local seafood to finish cooking. This was at a luxury resort, and cost about $12/day on a monthly plan. Next it's off to Maine, then the Black Hills and the Rockies for early fall. Winter again along the Gulf, and by late spring the rig is pointer toward Alaska for the summer. This all happens on roughly a third of our available "post-retirement income" and is far from an expensive way to enjoy life.
To each his own. Don't forget however, that that "idiot next door neighbor with the RV" might have a lot more going on than you ever imagined, and be enjoying life a hell of a lot more than you are.