Why does what kind of bike a person ride have anything to do with the value of their opinion, or the level at which they ride? Has the a-hole roady syndrome caught on to mountain biking?

When I lived in Turkey I regularly got my a-ss handed to me by kids on sub $200 bikes that were falling apart. I have also met people that didn't know crap about bikes, and have ridden for less than a year and were genetic mutants that can tear it up, and I have talked with bike shop employees that truly believe that rock shox and manitou are just as good as Fox. Leave all the judgment to the butt packing roadies.