Gear-heads or something like them.

I know a lot of gear-heads. People obsessed with the newest and best gear, always upgrading their equipment caches, scoping out buyers guides and researching online. I fall into this category. I like to know what's available, who's making the best products and working to be green and environmentally friendly in a practical way. I rarely replace gear though, unless it's broken, or something more efficient enough to be worth it has replaced the model I own. Even then, I pass on my old equipment and try to recoup some of what I spent on the new item.

I know a guy. He owns 11 backpacking stoves, each one lighter than the next. I asked him why he keeps buying all these stoves and his explanation was that he needed to get his stove weight down to as little as possible, and have one for every possible scenario.

I asked him how much he had spent on said stoves and the amount was over a thousand dollars. The average comes out to something like $22 an ounce, about $360 a pound.
Ridiculous I say.
The best cost to weight ratio stove he had was a simple little alcohol stove that weighs in at 3 or so ounces and cost less than thirty dollars, but when I asked him why he didn't just stick with that, he informed me that all it could do was boil water and that it was slow.

On the other end of the spectrum, he has a three hundred dollar canister stove for use at high altitude with impressive boil times and a relatively low weight but that one was too bulky and had too many pieces to break in the field.

I petition that there has to be a middle ground, where a well informed individual with a normal income and conscientious spending habits can buy a [one] stove, or any other piece of gear for that matter, and have it last, serve its purpose and meet their needs in almost all environments and be light enough for comfort that one doesn't have to buy a new one every year.

Don't get me wrong, I am not taking a one size fits all approach here. No one wants to take one sleeping bag for year round camping in different locations and environments. What I am saying is that no one needs 3 winter bags or 5 solo tents.

Nobody needs 11 stoves, either.

Beers on me.