It's not that it makes them harder to beat it's the fact that the majority of people don't have the funds to compete with someone getting discounted/free equipment.
I can never understand the "getting out of the hobby" posts in the for sale forums... You but all this top of the line stuff and then decide you all of a sudden don't want to do it anymore?? Every time I don't feel like doing it anymore, I put my stuff on a higher shelf...