I ran into some of that "********" sentiment the other day when I went to jam with a drummer. The drummer has a sound guy (the practice place is more studio than basement) and after talking a bit, asked me what I brought. I opened the case and said "Just a '96 PRS CE24....nothing special today." Guy went off on a rant about how I could have saved money by buying a G faded LP and, after some new pickups and a setup, I could have a better tone. He then asked me what other guitars and gear and I owned.....I gave him a brief run down. He shook his head and told me that I needed an M amp and some pedals and how I spent too much money.
Anyways, this went on for awhile and I just smiled, sipped my beer, and nodded my head. It comes plug in time and he asked if I needed a cable. Nope. So he has me plug into a first generation POD. I looked at it, figured out how to pull up the tuner, messed with the controls a bit, and hit a chord. Honestly, between the settings on the POD and the way he had the board channel dialed in, it was a very acceptable tone even over headphones. They have a recorder setup and even playback sounded good.
After the first jam, he was apologizing for bashing my "Doctors Only" guitar and complimenting me on my playing and how I was able to get good tone from the POD. Apparently I was just supposed to be some douche that couldn't play but made enough to buy an overpriced PRS. I chuckled, said "No worries", and went back to playing. Drummer turned out to be really good and I can read his changes rather well given we were just riffing off of each other.
I admit, 20 years ago I thought the same way. Was in El Paso TX at a bar watching a band with a buddy who asked me "What do you think of PRS?" My response "Overpriced wall hangers. Stick with F and G". Fast forward to today and all he and I own are PRS. Go figure.....