I'd like to point out an additional value of going lightweight -- or at least "low volume" -- which amounts to about the same thing.

You save space in a car on trips. This can be significant. With at one point, 5 kids, we didn't have lots of extra room. We saved money by car-camping on trips instead of usually getting a motel. If we had owned conventional gear, there would have not been enough room in the vehicle. Either we would have had to spend the night in a motel or it would have taken a bigger (and more expensive) vehicle whose space would have been unused most of the year.

I understand, if you don't have the money, you have to work within those parameters. But if you do travel, then money which would be allocated to motel time or car size can be devoted to compressible, lightweight gear. I believe we saved in the low thousands of dollars over the time we had kids.

You don't even need a lot of kids for the car size savings to be realized. Perhaps a compact would be usable instead of a mid-size or a mid-size instead of a SUV/Van.