I was being hyperbolic by using two buck chuck as the level where 99% of people stop being able to tell swill from good.

And sure, a top somm is going to be able to tell a lot more about a bottle than a rando off the street. That said, when the only other people that can tell the difference are other "level four" somms...

In other words, and back to my original point, there may be differences in the absolute top of the line, and sure, there are differences between where a product of any type is shit, gets pretty good, and becomes top class, but for 99.999999% of consumers, those differences are not discernable in the slightest. And those people are not going to put in the time or effort or learning or whatever to become able to discern those things. And lots and lots of people probably can't discern those things.

So yeah, anyone with a super huge interest or passion should knock themselves out and go apeshit learning all they can and telling each other how great their thing is and pat each other on the back about it. The rest of the world is served just as well by a $60 pair of headphones and a $15 bottle of wine, and its ridiculous to one, pretend otherwise, and two, develop a superiority complex about it.

That's all.