Thanks OP for the post and others POV's. I do have a tendency to poo poo the higher end bikes, but mostly from the perspective of what several mentioned about photog sites (snobs), a lot of people feel like they can't do this or that unless they have a better bike. I like to encourage others to ride what they have, most of us don't "need" a high end bike to do the job, the job can be done with a lot of different types of bikes(hell the most miles ridden in a year still stands from 1939 and he rode a steel framed 3 and 4 speed!), but if you have the means and want that bike, by all means go for it. My crappy bike is much better today than a high end bike was years ago, so we need folks to pay big bucks for high end stuff it eventually gets down to me!
I know a guy who spent $10k on a bike and mentioned to me (probably because mine was crappy) that a lot of people think that it's stupid to pay that much, I told him it's only stupid if a) you can't afford it and b) you don't ride it.
But in general I like to encourage people to just ride and don't worry about all the "stuff".