Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real"

Yes and I blame the manufacturers for this. They turned the hobby into a gear sport, spent decades convincing this exact segment that step zero to taking "real" pictures was to buy about $5000 worth of equipment. It worked well and made a lot of money for a long time... but also completely took all the fun out of photography imo. People were more likely to sit around arguing on online forums about "bokeh" and f-stops than go out and actually shoot pictures. Now suddenly everyone has an amazing camera sitting in their pocket, everyone is a photographer, picture taking has increased, what, ten-thousand fold? Photography is fun again ... and they are not even in the conversation. You reap what you sow.