I got pretty lucky and had pretty much completed my audio setup gear before the price of every hobby exploded. I'm running a Kenwood KA-801 amplifier into JBL L5 speakers. My turntable is a Technics SL-1200 MK2 paired with an AT VNM40ML stylus, and I'm using a Schiit Modi 3 as a DAC. This has more-or-less been my setup for about 6 years. Aside from replacing the 30 year old capacitors in the L5s I have no plans for an upgrade.
It was probably a little bit unfair to dump on "audiophiles" as a whole, given that I really like listening to music and have a decent audio setup. There's absolutely merit to investing in decent audio equipment if you're into music, and you can get into high fidelity music on almost any budget.
The problem is that, like any hobby, there's an elitist element that exists past the 90% curve on the law of diminishing returns. In the audio world, that curve starts to dig in around $5-7k when buying a brand new complete setup (speakers, amp/preamp, DAC, possibly a turntable.) When you go from spending $50 to $500 on an audio rig, there's a huge jump in performance. $500 to $5000 is still pretty big, and about the maximum any sane person would spend on a new amp and speaker combo. But the audio world goes so far beyond that. Once you're spending over five grand on a setup, there's honestly not much more that engineering can do to improve things for somebody listening to music in their home. That doesn't stop manufacturers from charging people more, and tacking on psuedo scientific jargon to justify the upsell.
It gets ugly becasue if somebody plunks down $15k on a set of speakers, they WILL hear a difference. It doesn't matter if there is one or not; they spent used car money on a set of speakers and admitting they made a mistake is admitting they wasted it all. This means that there's heavy debate between those who try to call out some of those psuedo-science claims and people who will never, ever change their opinion on their own equipment.
This psuedo-science seeps into reviews. You'll find write-ups calling the sound of an amp "floral", "bass like a warm cup of cocoa" or "wide open" because there's no real data to show a meaningful difference between it and something that costs a fifth of the price. They have to stray into emotion. It also leads to people buying $200 sets of speaker cables with their own jargonistic claims because, hey, you bought a $10k amp. You're not gonna connect it to your $15k speakers with ordinary lamp cord, are you? No, you need the best. Even if there's no real difference. $200 is nothing next to the price of your whole setup, so go for it!
I think this same undercurrent exists in the keyboard community too, but to a much lesser degree. Mostly becasue the price ceiling on keyboards is so much lower than with audiophile equipment. Even plunking down for a beam spring is "only" going to cost you around $1000. And if you somehow bought a beam spring and hated it, it's way easier to back down from a $1000 mistake than a $25,000 mistake.