How about the fact that years ago when the hobby flourished, it was a time when you bought average equipment off the shelf and as you learned to drive you also learned to build faster motors and set-up faster cars. Yes it was more involved than that, but the idea was you grew as a mechanic and a driver as your overall skill improved.

I see one of the biggest problems nowadays being that with a big enough budget anyone can buy more speed than their skill can handle. The last 5 or 6 years it seems every effort has been made to simplify this or make it so you don't have to do that or worry about those...... well it makes for great weekend warriors and not hobbyist, and it is likely the hobbyist are the ones who will be around for the long haul.