I agree with your first point, which is that by all appearances the acquisition of the product is the entirety of the hobby -- look at any subreddit for musicia

I agree with your first point, which is that by all appearances the acquisition of the product is the entirety of the hobby -- look at any subreddit for musicians or ham radio operators or whatever, it's all photos of some newly-purchased toy with titles like "I couldn't resist!". I think this is in part because it's a lot more effort (and risk of criticism) to post a video of yourself e.g. playing that guitar... and in part because of the feedback loop that makes us think buying shit = participating. On the second point there is some basic level of quality which is just unpleasant to go below. Sure, maybe a $500 ukulele isn't that much better than a $100 one, but that doesn't mean you should try to learn on a $10 plastic ukulele from Aliexpress.