I suddenly feel like I am attacking the bike community, which was not my intention! I'm just coming back to biking and realized how much I don't know, so I'm asking a bunch of questions.
Your point is well taken, people buy bikes for different reasons: fitness, commuting, racing, etc. And then there are the freaky purists. I guess my reason is touring and commuting so it makes sense for me to have a bunch of gears. I've never raced, so racing probably is all about being in the highest gear for most of the time. Apologies jhota! And thanks to both of you for the replies!