I think I explained it fairly clearly
You might think that, but you didn't 😉
It's just that I enjoy the fettling, so am happier fiddling with it myself rather than relying on just buying in components to get a decent ride
This strongly suggests that that people buy nice kit to try and compensate for poor setup (by juxtaposing good setup and expensive kit). This a) is not true and b) wouldn't work anyway! If your indexing's out, then it's out and your gears won't work – regardless of whether or not it's Alivio or XTR..?
To be fair, you did come across as a little disparaging towards those who spent money on kit, I felt. Obviously you don't need to spend money to enjoy your riding – this is so obvious it goes without saying.
But yea, I'd like to see some diagrams 🙂