Do these people believe their own BS? "it's not the equipment, it's the photographer!"

If you've been on DPR's forums for longer than a few days, you've likely seen SOMEONE say this at some time, about something.

What I want to know is, are the people saying it truly bought into it, are they misunderstanding the situations they're talking about, or is there just this big inside joke that I haven't figured out yet?  ...diving into it...

Are they bought into it?...  Seriously?  Do they honestly believe what they're saying, that gear doesn't matter?  Really?  If so, is it safe to assume that they shoot ONLY with the most mediocre gear they can find?

Are they misunderstanding things?...  What I mean by that is, generally, a person asks "what's better, A or B?"  And then the responses come in saying things like "the photographer matters more".  Well... NO SH**!!!  Gear can't take a picture by itself with ZERO human involvement (conversely, a person can't take a photograph without a camera and lens).  Just like a gun can't go out, hunt someone down, and kill them, all by itself.  But it SEEMS like their interpretation of "what's better, A or B?" is actually "what's better, photographer A with gear A or photographer B with gear B".  They don't seem to grasp the fact that THE SAME PERSON would theoretically be using either A OR B and that ONE person wants to know what the better option for them is.  How does THAT not register in their head?

Finally, is there some inside joke that I simply haven't been around long enough to get?  If so, PLEASE someone fill me... and also, PLEASE let it be truly funny and entertaining!

"It's not the gear, it's the photographer" is the most obvious statement in the world.  OF COURSE the photographer matters the most!!!  But it's also the most irrelevant statement in the world when 1 person is comparing different options (which is what gear site participants do).  However, it's COMPLETELY relevant if we're comparing photographer A to photographer B.

I wonder if DPR would be so kind as to automatically ban anyone making this most obvious, yet completely irrelevant statement on their site?    lol