Many guitar players know every detail about the equipment they use. This includes me. I love talking about gear and brands that I like. I love when I see other musicians make interesting choices with their gear. I watch rig rundowns. I like to know what synths were used on a track. When I see a band live I try to identify all the equipment they use.
How much does gear matter? And if it does, what about it?
It's a cliché in our space to say that "tone is in the fingers". People on the internet take this literally rather than as its intended meaning - Your ability to sound good is more dependent on your musical ability than the amount of money you spend.
If you want to play metal you'll make different choices in the gear you choose than someone who wants to play traditional jazz. It would be difficult to play modern metal on an archtop through a jazz chorus (especially without the help of pedals) and get a sound that works for what you're going for. That guitar probably also does not fit the visual aesthetic you're going for.
But how much better is a $4000 Jackson Custom Shop compared to a $300 Harley Benton? Is the Jackson really 13 times better? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there isn't anything that factors into the differences that isn't worth considering. In a blind sound test though, would you be able to tell which one costs more? Do Gibsons actually sound any better than Epiphones?
From what I've heard, the answer is no. SpectreSoundStudios has plenty of videos where he does blind tests of cheap guitars versus expensive guitars and the cheaper guitar often ends up sounding better. Jim Lill has a fantastic series of videos where he explores what contributes to how gear sounds. His video on where tone comes from in an electric guitar really opened my eyes. Jim's Video
Plenty of people online claim that the wood an electric guitar is built with has a noticeable impact on how it sounds. I have seen no proof for this claim, but I'm open to changing my mind with evidence.
I've also seen the argument that "Expensive gear will inspire you to write great music". Plenty of fantastic music has been made on cheap gear. Also, if this were true wouldn't hobbyists with $10,000 Paul Reed Smiths be producing incredible music? They don't because all the other factors that go into making music are far more important than how expensive your guitar is.
I can't make value judgements for you. Is the way flame maple looks worth the price? Do you want to support US manufacturers? Do you think telecasters are ugly? These are all for you to decide for yourself.
But if we're only treating the guitar for its utility as a tool used to make music, these are the things two things that truly matter.
You might have other needs based on the music you want to play - i.e you want a tremolo so you can do dive bombs.
There are legitimately cool hardware options available. The Evertune bridge system is great. Graphtech nuts don't need any graphite in the slot. Humbuckers will sound different than single coils and be less noisy. Headless guitars offer their own benefits. What I'm really trying to hammer down in this post isn't that nothing matters in your choice of guitar, it's that a lot of high end companies make ridiculous claims about how much better their guitars sound.
Some guitars are so bad that they're not worth playing. I've had students who have brought in some truly awful instruments that it makes learning hard. I'm not talking about the difference between a guitar bought at walmart and a Fender here. Im talking about guitars that are baseline playable vs guitars that are thousands of dollars.
There have been numerous times the following situation has happened. A piece of gear is cheap and no one cares about it. Some up and coming artist begins using that piece of gear or a popular artist reveals they used that gear on one of their records. At this point the price of that gear skyrockets as people try to recreate that artists sound.
The takeaway from these situations should be that great music can be made on cheap gear. Sometimes gear that's overlooked can offer sounds that are unique. I don't think a good takeaway is that in order to make music like Mk.Gee you should spend hundreds of dollars on an old Tascam.