You are revealing the forbidden knowledge! Apostate!
You're not wrong though. For people who like shopping and buying new things, photography is the gift that keeps on giving. There are so many bits and bobs and toys and trinkets one can buy.
When the GAS topic came up before on some other forum, some previous time, I speculated that surely other visual artists don't have this problem. I couldn't imagine web sites where people who paint fight over which brand of brushes is the best, with dedicated forums for brush brands. Someone who actually knows the painting community chimed in to say that painters do in fact obsess about gear too. But it has to be a matter of degree. I don't see how painting can come close to being in photography's league when it comes to gear and GAS.
I used to enjoy being on the Large Format Photography Forum because it was extremely difficult to squabble about gear. With exceptions like companies such as Intrepid, nobody was making new cameras, and certainly nobody was making new large format lenses. Whenever a newbie would ask the inevitable "Which lens is best?" question, some experienced person would take their turn and say, "Schneider-Kreuznach, Rodenstock, Fuji, Nikkor -- they're re all fine. You won't be able to tell the difference. Just pick one and get shooting".
Unfortunately, there's endless new stuff to shop for, buy and obsess about in digital photography. Ask me how I know.
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Thankfully, I really, truly, honestly -- scout's honour -- believe I have what I need and can't do much better without spending a huge amount of money. When I get the itch, I try to ground myself by remembering that
I don't need better equipment, I need better ideas. Repeat after me....