Consumer spending is getting hit hard and luxury campgear is easy to forego.
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/...
We are going back to normal. Maybe REI hired for the insane bubble continuing?
We haven't even gotten to clothes.
I used a summer sleeping bag that was 14 oz after I cut the zipper off (Marmot Pounder, which I wish they still made).
I had a "blue foam" sleeping pad that was cut down to size, which is extremely cheap and light. I now opt for much heavier sleeping pads. When cowboy camping along the AT you do not need much of a sleeping pad because you'll likely be on top of leaves, but on a shelter floor it's not enough.
For shelter, I just had a 6 oz sil tarp for when an AT shelter was full and I expected rain. I set up the tarp exactly once, and it didn't rain anyways.
My spare clothes were a spare pair of socks, a fleece shirt, fleece gloves, and a fleece beanie. None of those were expensive. I had a $0.99 plastic poncho for rain gear.
I did not cook, so no cooking gear. I had a digital camera which I barely used. And then just small stuff like toothbrush, water treatment drops, etc.
My base pack weight was like 6 lbs and change, and I had a tarp and camera I wasn't really using.
So, yeah, you can hike extremely light and not spend a lot of money. It depends on what trip you are doing. I started very late in the season, so the weather was warmer and shelters were not full.
I resupplied food in towns along the way. And while in town, I had a hot meal there. Also consider that resupplying is often not done in an actual town, but in a convenience store or whatever is closest to the trail.
Backpackers typically only cook dinner, and those get repetitive, so forgoing those with the added benefit of not carrying a stove, fuel, and a pot is sometimes nice. Some people find it wearisome to not have at least one hot meal a day.
Of course, I have done countless backpacking trips and have cooked on most of them.
Sure, if you really are in the wilderness. But if, like so many of the weight weenies interested in UL gear, you are hiking a well-trodden trail where water stops are frequent and well-mapped, no one is going to lug that weight until the end of the day when they might fill up for cooking with.
Edit, to add: or you’re not counting all the gear your pack animal is carrying.
Ten bucks of blankets from the thrift store, no tent, for instance. (The blanket fort remains one of my all-time favorite episodes.) Or a tarp and some straps from the hardware store. Or those $0.99 mylar "survival tent" things, what's the experience in one of those actually like? Another classic is the "can you make a tent from bubble wrap and survive in it in the dead of Canadian winter?"... No spoilers, but it's hilarious.
I forget which episode he explains it in, but the idea was that he was sick of seeing all the glamping channels with expensive gear in exotic locations, and their implication that camping and being out in nature was somehow a luxury for the rich, when it should be, no, it IS, everyone's to enjoy.
From there, his focus grew to the locations themselves. Opposite of exotic. Downright silly. Behind billboards, in a storm drain culvert, in the landscaping in the middle of a suburban roundabout... Not only can you camp without gear, you don't need a campground either.