Cycling, like fast cars or other expensive insular hobbies, can lead to a mania and weird normalization of extremes and obsession with the minutia. If you hang out with car collectors and car mod'ers the idea of dropping thousands for a fancy tail pipe, or custom paint job feels normal, since that is what everyone else is doing (or claiming to be doing). Sure, your car might go slightly faster, sound slightly better, or whatever, but it only matters to that tiny cluster of folks you have surrounded yourself with. Much of the rest of the world (and not just Mustachians) will shake their heads at the excess and bizarre choices.
Cycling in similar, where it is easy to think that you can't ride your bike without having the latest XTR or Dura-Ace bling on your bike. I was just reading on another forum a post by a fellow wanting suggestions for a "budget" groupset to put on a loaner bike. "Budget" turned into 1 level down from the top of the line. Dude was convinced that he needed to spend more on drive train parts for a loaner bike than I paid for my whole last bike.
Reality is that 90+% of cycling speed is the rider, and only that last <10% is the equipment. Once you have a bike that fits and isn't busted most gains are made from fitness, not buying fancy parts or tighter lycra. Many are convinced they can't be a real cyclist without getting that last <10% in order first. Only then, after dropping many thousands, will they feel ready to squeeze their gut into some lycra and show up at the local group ride to spend more time jawing about their upgrades than actually riding them.