I have a gear spreadsheet and am playing with a way to quantify what adding extra stuff "costs" me. I tag my basic most minimalistic gear and its weight is "tax-free". A heavier alternative of an essential item gets "taxed" the incremental additional weight. For each non-essential optional item, a percentage of its weight becomes a "tax". For example, gear that adds safety or complies with regulation (ie bear can) gets "taxed" 20%, added comfort 50%, added convienence 60%, entertainment 80%. Fishing is entertainment, because honestly I am not good enough to count on it to really provide food and it plays second fiddle to my photography. Then I aim to limit my "tax burden" to 5 pounds. The spreadsheet is evolving. If I repeatedly take a "low value/high tax" item it becomes clear to me that it needs to be assigned more value and less tax. For example my camera has bumped up from the "entertainment" catagory to a higher value to me.

This helps me make sure the extra weight I am taking is worth it! I just add up everything I want to take on the spreadsheet and then look at my "tax". If it excees the 5-pound limit, then I adjust. Because each extra item has a different value, I can more quickly get rid of the extra weight by deleting a low value item. I do not obsess over lighter gear that I do not own. I just deal with the equipment that I own and what it actually weighs.

AND, the final step is to pack it up (including food and water), and put on the pack! There have been times when I have then said, no way! Something HAS to go! So when I eliminate stuff, the low value items are the first to go.

I would not go to all this effort if I did not actually enjoy developing spreadsheets or if I were able to do a similar exercise intuitively. It was not until I actually forced myself to assign numeric "values" to my stuff that I got a handle on reducing pack weight or really understand what was important to me.

So, the answer is YES, I do make a concious decison NOT to reduce weight (take extra items). But it is based on the value of each added item and I set a total limit so I do not go overboard. I also do not simply go out and buy new stuff because it weighs less. I wait until I need to replace something, THEN yes, I consider the lighter gear if it is within my budget.