I know it's in jest, but in hindsight, I do feel I've been suckered a little by the GM Marketing. I started many years ago with Canon, and very standard consumer lenses, and when I finally earned enough to buy some 'L' glass, the difference was significant, so I never looked back and only used 'L' glass by the time I switched to Fuji around 6 years ago. With Fuji, there was no choice, plus the Fuji glass was great, so it was a easy decision, but since switching to Sony at the start of this year, sticking with my Canon mindset, I only bought GM glass:
- 85/1.4
- 24-70/2.8
- 100-400 + 1.4TC
- 135/1.8
Other than one time, when looking for a very small lens, I bought the Zeiss 35/2.8 off our very own JJ. That has caused me to re-evaluate the need for GM. It's a great lens in terms of image quality, size, weight and cost, and got me thinking that going off old experiences of cheap Canon versus expensive Canon lenses really doesn't make all that much sense.
I'm certainly guilty of being driven in part by FOMO (Fear of missing out) - what if I don't get the 'best', what if I need it, buy cheap buy twice etc and that's something I need to work on, but the reality for me at least is the overall standard of lenses over the past 30+ years has improved significantly, so basing my buying decisions on patterns engrained so long ago is probably a bit silly - not easy to change though!
That said, I don't regret getting the GMs, they'll see me good in the end, but I'm sure they are overkill for me as a hobbyist.