I doubt I will ever make it into what people seem to be calling ultra light.

Welcome to the club!

Unless there is a compelling reason why you need to go ultralight, it is superfluous to spend any time, money or effort on it. The ultralight compulsion originated with thru-hikers, who had an excellent reason to cut every ounce they could. Some other UL backpackers do so because of age or injury, where a few extra pounds make the difference between getting out to the places they want to go or being unable to.

As far as I can tell, though, a significant number of ultralighters are merely making a fetish of gram-saving for no real reason other than to brag about how low their base weight is. Most of us here do not fall into that sort of silliness. The hike is what is important and the base weight is just a measurement that lets us talk about how to solve various problems that come with carrying too much weight.