In some respects I agree - some of the backpacks seem ridiculously overpriced for a sack of nylon with a few straps... but some are engineered for specific environments, and others are custom fitted to you.

And not all gear is expensive unnecessarily. If you want a really compressible and light down bag of adequate warmth to your desired temp range, you will pay a high price, because very high quality down is hard to come by - you can't just pull all the feathers off a goose and stuff 'em in a sack. Down doesn't work like that. It's not feathers. It's under the feathers, and more difficult to gather, clean and package than any slab of Climashield.

Some of us who go out every month look at some kinds of gear as an investment. Being comfortable with the pack to take it often is important, as is having a sleeping bag that will last decades rather than a few years. If you go out twice a year with buddies, yeah, that cheap external frame and cheap sleeping bag work real well.

Aaaand, you don't have to pay full price. There are a ton of websites like steep and cheap and sierra trading post where you can get some of the items you're complaining about for significant discounts - I don't care that something is last year's colors, I'll pay $50 instead of 300 and be just as happy. I only go to an actual store for something I need to fit to my body in very specific ways - like boots. A good fitting boot makes the difference between a death march and a happy fifty miler.