But the whole sport is centered around stroking egos

??? Is track? How about swimming? Or Olympic lifting?

It just looks like the whole instagram bullshit in which everybody tries to look super hardcore and tough and bulk even though they just did 10 sets of pushups to get a pump.

I'm not sure what you're referencing here

In Crossfit they call them - kipping - pullups so the average schmuck can go out and tell people he's doing pullups while in reality he only does kipping pullups which has no value in actual strength training and in a conversation about regular pullups.

No. CrossFit does not call them kipping pull-ups for the sole purpose of some douche pretending he can do 30 strict pullups. Wtf lol. They call them kipping pull-ups because.... Well......... You kip into the pull-up. The movement? It's called a kip. The other movement? A pull-up. Together? Kipping pull-up.

The goal is to pull up as many times as possible, no rules. Just like the goal in baseball is to strike the batter out. Pitching isn't healthy for your shoulder, and neither is this.

Comparing this to a strict form exercise pull-up is like comparing pitching to side shoulder raises.