I remember hearing that comment --- I was there. In fact, I've got proof! :-)
I'm the bald grey-bearded guy to the far right in the photo from this:
Stepping up into the ranks of Triple Crown hikers

I sort of agree with the comment, or rather, I agree that the field of gear-focused books by experienced hikers has become richly populated. The other thing about gear-focused guides is that they inevitably get out of date pretty quickly; just turn to almost any random page in a copy of "The Complete Walker" by Colin Fletcher for an example of this.