There are many things in life that you get what you pay for. Whether that applies to golf equipment or not has wasted much bandwidth over the years.
Everyone has an opinion and more importantly a budget. I was shocked to hear how much demand there is for ultra high end Jspec clubs overseas. Likewise , with companies like PXG. There are tons of wealthy people out there who dont bat an eye at buying $1000 pair of jeans, a $10,000 watch, $150,000 car or a set of PXG clubs at whatever $5,000. These people can so they do. If you cant and you do, that's where the problem arises 😉. There's a certain degree of service enhancement and pampering that comes with most high end stuff. I dont even consider Talyor Made or Calllaway etc high end gear, its run of the mill mid line stuff directed at the average retail consumer. Lots of folks like the convenience of shopping retail over wholesale. Others like assembling their own crap. I have a large network of golf friends , work at a course and am part of two leagues and outside of some of those from FGI, very few care or want to build their own, id say even a 1/3 - 1/2 of our Desert Storm crew play retail/OEM. Absolutely for those who like to upgrade their gear and get something in return you need to buy "brand" name. If you arent worried about that then go components. I recently bought a next to new set of Maltby DBM, with C taper shafts and new GP grips, hit maybe a couple times. Up here the retail value through GW for the set was $900 Cdn . ( not including assembly) I got them for $300. Thats quite a shit kicking the guy took.
buying a $1000 driver might not make me a better golfer, likewise driving a new $100,000 bimmer won't make me a better driver than my current 14 year old SUV, and im sure as hell, those $1,000 jeans I saw last week wont make my ass look smaller than it does in my $75 Levis. 😉
I buy stuff, some high end , some not......Not to be cheap, not to be elitest, but because I want to and it fits my needs and my budget.