As a classical guitarist, I do understand and can easily tell the quality difference in guitars (which is why I didn't use it as an analogy).
As a professional software developer with decades of experience covering almost every keyboard type known to man, I can honestly say the characteristics of the various keyboard types aren't enough to matter, other than as a comfort or RSI or vanity thing. I've never found a $100 vs a $20 keyboard to affect my performance. I HAVE, however, found the difference between a $500 and $3000 guitar to be quite noticeable. It's hard to go back to a cheap guitar from a good one. It's not at all hard to go from a $300 keyboard to a $30 one.
I used the footstool analogy because I could just as easily see people obsessing over it like with keyboards, fountain pens, and audio equipment (getting high precision angle and height control, presets for different musical styles, different grip surfaces and build material, etc).
i think of jack white who sounds awesome playing on a plank of wood for a guitar. such a guitarist might say your $3000 instrument is a vanity thing as well. speaking from my own experience, a topre keyboard or a heavily damped backplated keyboard with red switches invites me to type all day. so its subjective. i guess here i see the analogy to the footstool but id argue its more like your chair (and man, just look at the chairs in the valley...). your chair wont make you an elite software developer. but elite software developers tend to notice their ass is seated in this thing all day every day and they take it seriously.
> such a guitarist might say your $3000 instrument is a vanity thing as well.
No, they wouldn't. Playing well on a shit instrument is a way to demonstrate skill good enough to overcome shit, or part of your public persona. Or they have a good quality instrument that looks like shit because it hasn't been treated well in the past. All professional musicians know what to expect from a good quality instrument (up to a point of course - spending $15000 on a guitar puts you right back with the audiophiles).
As a professional software developer with decades of experience covering almost every keyboard type known to man, I can honestly say the characteristics of the various keyboard types aren't enough to matter, other than as a comfort or RSI or vanity thing. I've never found a $100 vs a $20 keyboard to affect my performance. I HAVE, however, found the difference between a $500 and $3000 guitar to be quite noticeable. It's hard to go back to a cheap guitar from a good one. It's not at all hard to go from a $300 keyboard to a $30 one.
I used the footstool analogy because I could just as easily see people obsessing over it like with keyboards, fountain pens, and audio equipment (getting high precision angle and height control, presets for different musical styles, different grip surfaces and build material, etc).