my answer might not address the thrust of the question exactly, but it's true, in two parts. The first is that we, as photographers, will always be haunted by "the one that got away." The picture that, if it could've been taken, would be our favorite, out of the thousands and thousands we've ever snapped. Just maybe the next little technological bump, 15ms faster focus, maybe, and that photo would've been ours...or will be.
The second part is simply that photography attracts technophiles in a way that, say, painting, doesn't , and we people like thinking about this stuff.

There's a line of thought that "I'm only one more piece of equipment away from being a good photographer," which is similar to "I'd be a great photographer if I had better equipment." Motorcyclists can fall prey to this as well ("I'd ride better with better tires / more power / a sexier bike.") For motorcyclists, the real answer is simply "learn to ride," and for photographers it's "learn to take pictures."

I went to a seminar with a couple of National Geographic photographers, someone asked one of them about what equipment she was using during a particular shoot, she replied that she didn't really pay any attention to equipment, she was after a feeling expressed through an image.

I once wrote, and was quoted on The Online Photographer, "Gadgets are to men what shoes are to women".
Some attacked me for being sexist. I was never sure if it was against men or women...

If your images sucked with the small crappy camera, they'll suck with the big expensive camera too. Just more pixels, that's all. I've learned to ignore the noise, and with certain parties I don't even mention new purchases anymore. Because it means listening to the same old arguments over and over again.

Happy shooting and enjoy the weekend ;-)

Although I have several newer better cameras I have over the last few months created a photo oriented blog with each post having a photo from my 10 year old 2 mega pixel pocket camera (the original Canon digital elph). It is an exercise in less is more which I think is helping me become a better photographer.

Wow, yes I used that camera too, it was awesome. I think I still have it. One of my most successful sets was photographed with it, see here.

I see it as two different hobbies. One is the pictures, one is the camera appreciation. You can do both.

But also, you can't make good landscape photos with a 2MP camera, pretty much. And you will struggle to make good sports/play/action photos if you don't have really snappy autofocus (which at the moment means a big DSLR).