My pet conspiracy theory is that flat-earthers are actually a false flag operation by some 3letteragency to make actual conspiracy theorists look bad. ;)
Vs. my pet conspiracy theory is that the 3 letter agencies are all false flag operations by the kooks, to convince us "normals" that trusting government is a ridiculous idea...
It doesn't need much of a theory to me. People who don't understand the engineering involved are being taken advantage of by charlatans selling phony products with explanations that almost make sense at first glance and induce a placebo effect due to that and price (so they do "sound better"). The audiophiles (and likely some amount of sellers) naturally try to defend their purchases, but they're trying to reason based on the nonsense they were sold, and end up in a feedback loop of nonsense. People getting older and trying to reclaim their faltering hearing probably plays a part in it too.
It's people that want to spend money on their hobbies and have fun collecting "cool" gear, but end up going overboard with it.
I don't do it, but IMO it's totally fine to spent thousands on a speaker or even hundreds on a cable if it brings you joy and doesn't cause financial problems, but you don't have to justify it to anyone, even (and especially) to other audiophiles. The problem is when you somehow believe that you have to justify your purchases and come up with crazy excuses. :(
