Building an AR-15 now. I have always owned guns even as a kid, but never saw them as anything but tools to do what I wanted to do (hunt). I've had some expensive ones for fun and investment (subguns) but never really been a shooter, always a hunter. Some are shooters. I hunt with two guys, one a hunter and one a shooter. The hunter has a ty lever action that looks like he gardens with it. The shooter builds a rifle every year for that one shot, then he sells the gun. The hunter takes big animals, always successful. The shooter rarely gets a kill but he loves the processes and spends about 3K on the gun (gets it back and then some when he sells it). Both are legitimate gun users, but I am more like the hunter than the shooter. I want good equipment, but I don't need dozens of them, just one. These days I bow hunt, don't own a deer rifle any longer but I am building the AR because they are fun to build and fun to shoot, and the return on investment is about 1:1 at worst.
My SIL stockpiles but he's an enthusiast and loves to build guns. He's not a tacti-cool type, and I don't get the feeling he seems to get around these accessories, but with fishing I can relate.